Ways of creating and reading an associative array

Apr

2008

Ways of creating and reading an associative array

In this short article I'm exploring ways of creating and reading object or an associative array.

The "array way" of creating an associative array:

var associativeArray:Array = [];
associativeArray["Alison"] = 22;
associativeArray["Martina"] = 28;
associativeArray["Silvia"] = 35;

Can be done also this way:

var associativeArray:Array = [];
associativeArray.Alison = 22;
associativeArray.Martina = 28;
associativeArray.Silvia = 35;

An associative array is actually an instance of Object class, so it can be crated also this way:

var associativeArray:Object = { Alison:22,
        Martina:28,
        Silvia:25};

These elements can be accessed in following ways:

trace(associativeArray["Martina"]); //traces 28
trace(associativeArray.Martina); //traces 28
 
//goes through all elements
for (var personName:String in associativeArray)
{
   trace(personName + " is " + associativeArray[personName]);
}
 
//traces names of all elements
for (var value:String in associativeArray)
{
   trace(value);
}
 
//traces values for all elements
for each (var value:* in associativeArray)
{
   trace(value);
}

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Ways of creating and reading an associative array

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