Operate multiple arrays simultaneously - arrays

Question

I am using as3 in adobe animate to create a video game.
I have created multiple arrays with movie clips e.g.
var A:Array [mc1, mc2, mc3]
var B:Array [mc4, mc5, mc6]
var C:Array [mc7, mc8, mc9]
var anObject:DisplayObject;
How can I operate all movie clips in all arrays simultaneously?
I have tried this:
mc_Player.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Change_Position);
function Change_Position (event:MouseEvent):void
{
{for each (anObject in A) & (anObject in B) & (anObject in C) // how can I get this right?
{anObject.x -= 100;
}}
}
I am also trying to understand if there is a way to operate all movie clips in my project simultaneously without using arrays.
e.g.
mc_Player.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Change_Position);
function Change_Position (event:MouseEvent):void
{
{all movie_clips // how can I get this right?
{anObject.x -= 100;
}}
}
Thank you.

Answer 1

There's no such thing as simultaneous in programming (well, unless you are multi-threading with the perfect sync, which is not an AS3 story at all).
There are to ways to get close to that simultaneous thing:
Put all the objects into a single container. You will be able to change x and y of that container so all the in-laid objects will change their visible positions at once. The downside is that you cannot rotate or scale them individually (think of them as clipped to a board and imagine you rotate the whole board), or you won't be able to move half of them.
Arrays and loops. You iterate through all the items one by one, very fast. It looks simultaneous from the outside, but it never is.
All that said, in order to achieve the things you want you need to figure a way to put all the objects you want to process simultaneously into a single Array and then do the thing you want on them.
Case №1: many Arrays to one.
// This methods takes a mixed list of items and Arrays
// and returns a single flattened list of items.
function flatten(...args:Array):Array
{
var i:int = 0;
// Iterate over the arguments from the first and on.
while (i < args.length)
{
if (args[i] is Array)
{
// These commands cut the reference to the Array
// and put the whole list of its elements instead.
aRay = [i,1].concat(args[i]);
args.splice.apply(args, aRay);
}
else
{
// The element is not an Array so let's just leave it be.
i++;
}
}
return args;
}
Then all you need to do is to get a single list out of your several Arrays:
var ABC:Array = flatten(A, B, C);
for each (var anObject:DisplayObject in ABC)
{
anObject.x -= 100;
}
Performance-wise, it is a good idea to pre-organize, if logically possible, these Arrays so you don't have to compile them each time you need to process all the objects. Simply, if sometimes you would need A + B, and sometimes B + C, and sometimes A + B + C, just create them and have them ready. If you know what you are going to deal with, you won't even need that complicated flatten method:
var AB:Array = A.concat(B);
var BC:Array = B.concat(C);
var ABC:Array = A.concat(B).concat(C);
Case №2: all the children at once. As I already explained in my answer to one of your previous questions, you can iterate over all the children of a certain container, and you can put them into — guess what — Array for later use. Also, you can filter the objects while doing so and put only those ones you actually want to be there.
var ALL:Array = new Array;
// Iterate over the amount of children of "this" container.
for (var i:int = 0; i < numChildren; i++)
{
// Obtain a reference to the child at the depth "i".
var anObject:DisplayObject = getChildAt(i);
// Here go possible criteria for enlisting.
// This will ignore texts and buttons.
// if (anObject is MovieClip)
// This will take only those with names starting with "mc".
if (anObject.name.substr(0, 2) == "mc")
{
ALL.push(anObject);
}
}
// Viola! You have all the objects you want in a single Array
// so you can bulk-process them now, which is ALMOST simultaneous.