Use value from array to set addeventListner to multiple buttons - arrays

Question

I'm making a game that have multiple instance of a MC in stage (a1,b1,c1....a2,b2,c2,d2,etc)
Every time to make a listener i have to write
Object(this).sopa.c1.btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, c1Click);
and create a function like this
function c1Click(event:MouseEvent):void
{
checkString += "c1";
var TFc1:TextFormat = Object(this).sopa.c1.letra.getTextFormat(0,1);
TFc1.color = 0xff0022;
Object(this).sopa.c1.letra.setTextFormat(TFc1);
check();
}
but whit that many buttons (more than 100) is to long writing them one by one.
So i think put the values (instance names) of the buttons in an array. Something like this
var casillas:Array = [a1, b1,c1];
for (var i:uint = 0; i < casillas.length; i++)
{
casillas[i].addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, a1presion);
trace(casillas[i])
}
but i cant get the value of the array element just a [object SimpleButton].Have anyone any ideas how to do this: I'm new in as3 i worked all my life in as2 and this is way to hard to understand for me.

Answer 1

This is where Object Oriented Programming shines. You encapsulate all properties and methods into a single object. You can then create as many of these objects, and watch as they function individually with the behavior specified inside.
Here's a simple button class I sometimes use myself:
package buttons {
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
public class SimpleButton extends MovieClip {
public function SimpleButton() {
addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, mOver);
addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, mOut);
addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mDown);
buttonMode = true;
}
protected function mOver(e:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop(2);
}
protected function mOut(e:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop(1);
}
protected function mDown(e:MouseEvent):void {}
}
}
Then create as many instances as you like, and store them in some container so that you can get rid of them at some point in the destruction of the program.
var buttons:Vector.<SimpleButton> = new Vector.<SimpleButton>();
buttons.push(new SimpleButton());
buttons.push(new SimpleButton());
buttons.push(new SimpleButton());

Answer 2

Firstly, I have to agree with Iggy, what you are trying to do will ultimately be more re-usable and easy to understand if it were written using Object Oriented code.
However, from what you have already written, I think you are saying is that you are struggling to create an event handler that is generic to all your buttons? So if you need to get the string name of the MovieClip as well as the actual clip reference maybe you could do something like this:
var casillas:Array = ["a1", "b1", "c1"]; //Have an array of the names of the buttons
for (var i:uint = 0; i < casillas.length; i++)
{
var mcReference:MovieClip = this.sopa[ casillasNames[i] ]; //Use the string reference to get hold of the button
mcReference.btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, _handleButtonClick); //Add a listener to the same "btn" child of the casilla as you did before.
}
you need a listener
function _handleButtonClick(e:Event)
{
var buttonReference:* = e.target;
So e.target in this instance should be the same object that you added to the array earlier (a1 or b1 or c1 depending on which one is clicked)
Now I'm going to make some leaps about how those MovieClips (a1,b1,c1) are structured (I'm guessing they are all the same just with different data in?)
function _handleButtonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var clickedButtonReference:* = e.target;
for(var i:int = 0; i< casillas.length; i++)
{
if(this.sopa[ casillasNames[i] ].btn == clickedButtonReference) //Check each button on the stage to see if it is the one that has been clicked.
{
checkString += casillasNames[i];
//To find this bit "this.sopa.c1.letra" there are two options either
var selectedLetra = this.sopa[ casillasNames[i] ].letra; //Using the string name of the MC to find it.
//or
var selectedLetra = clickedButtonReference.parent.letra; //Or using the fact that we know that the original MC contains both the btn and the letra as children.
//Once we have it though the rest of your function should work ok.
var TFc1:TextFormat= selectedLetra.getTextFormat(0,1)
TFc1.color = 0xff0022;
selectedLetra.setTextFormat(TFc1);
check();
//Just add a break to stop searching for the button since we have found it.
break;
}
}
}