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ActionScript Methods

Author: Animator Level : Beginner Environment : Adobe Flash MX Professional 2004
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ActionScript Methods

Functions or methods are block of ActionScript statements which can be reused. The functions can take one or more parameters and return one value. A function can be reused anywhere in an SWF file. ActionScript is having a collection of built in functions. Also if required we developers can also create custom ActionScript functions.

The general form of a method is

function functionName(parameter-list) {
//body of method
}

Defining a function

We need to use the function keyword for defining a function. The syntax of a function definition is as follows.

function functionName(parameter1, paramater2 , .....) {
function body
}

For eg:
function sayHello(){
trace("Hello....");
}

The above function takes zero parameters and returns nothing. It just prints "Hello...";

If we want to declare global function we need to use the _global identifier. For eg:
_global.sayHello() {
trace("hello");
}

Passing parameters to methods
Parameters are used for passing some values to the function so that the function can operate on that values. To pass a parameter to a function include the necessary parameters in the function definition separated by commas. For eg:

function sayHello(name) {
trace("Hello "+ name);
}

or function say(greeting, name) {
trace(greeting + name);
}

Returning a value from function
A function can return a value to the calling function using the return keyword. For eg:
function sayHello(name) {
return "Hello .."+name;
}

the above function returns a string contain "Hello.." and the name we passed to the function.

Function Invocation
To invoke or call a function just use the function name along with required parameters. For eg:
var greetings = sayHello("CGShelf");

The above statement calls the function sayHello with one parameter and stores the returned value to variable greetings.

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