Actionscript 3 eventlisteners, hittestobject and arrays of custom objects - arrays

Question

Another desperately stuck first year student here. And I have to use FlashCS as my coding environment. And it sucks. So I'll try some well constructed and clear questions. There is:
public var object: symbol1;
public var objectarray: Array = new Array();
in my main. Then a function there that uses a timer and spawns a new object and pushes it onto the array:
object = new symbol1;
objectarray.push(object)
but then when I trace() the .length of the array it displays TWO numbers of the array length every timer period in the output. As in:
1 1 2 2 3 3
etc. This is my first mystery. Why two not one? because there is no way I'm calling the function that includes the trace () twice. Also I think I need to be able to remove my object from the objectarray when it goes off the stage, but the objectarray.pop() doesn't seem to work if I use it like so in a function:
if (object.y == stage.stageHeight)
objectarray.pop()
As in I try trace() the array.length before and after the .pop(), but it just keeps going up by one every timer period.
And the other, bigger issue is I want to know if you are allowed to put the .addEventListeners that you usually place right under the main function of any class into a statement loop. As in I've got
class extends Main {
class function() {
for (var i:Number = 0; i < objectarray.length; i++){
objectarray[i].addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, collision);}}
And then, if it is allowed, the program doesn't seem to enter the collision function of this same class anyway.
function collision (event:Event) : void{
if (this.hitTestObject(object)){
trace('hit');}}
so I searched and ended up adding a
var clip:MovieClip = MovieClip(e.target);
in the first line of the function, but then it didn't work and I realized I on't understand what's it meant to do, what's going on anymore and what is the syntax for this casting.
Thank you very much.
Edit/Update: adding more of my code eventhough I hate copypasting it like this. This is the symbol class that is going to change when an object of another class hits it
public class Head extends Main {
public function Head(){
this.stop();
for (var i:Number = 0; i < nicesnowflakearray.length; i++){
nicesnowflakearray[i].addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, snowhit);
}
}
public function snowhit(event:Event) : void {
if (this.hitTestObject(nicesnowflake)){
//I changed this line to (e.currentTarget.hitTestObject(nicesnowflake)) as Atriace suggested, but nothing changed, and I just don't understand why my version wouldn't work.
trace("hit");
}
}
And this is the class that spawns the objects that are supposed to hit the Head object:
public class Main extends MovieClip {
public var nicesnowflake: fallingsnow;
var nicesnowflakespawntimer: Timer = new Timer(1000);
public var nicesnowflakearray: Array = new Array();
public function Main() {
nicesnowflakespawntimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, nicesnowflakespawn);
nicesnowflakespawntimer.start();
}
public function nicesnowflakespawn(event:TimerEvent) : void {
nicesnowflake = new fallingsnow;
nicesnowflake.x = Math.random()* stage.stageWidth;
nicesnowflake.y = - stage.stageHeight + 100;
nicesnowflakearray.push(nicesnowflake);
stage.addChild(nicesnowflake);
trace(nicesnowflakearray.length);
}

Answer 1

Why two, not one?
Anytime you extend another class, it implicitly calls the parent class' constructor. We know this as super(), and can be quite handy. This is why you're getting doubles on your trace statement. Technically, you can choose not to call super().
.pop()
It should remove the last element from that array, however, I'm thinking that if an arbitrary object leaves the stage, you can't be gauranteed it'll be the last element. Ergo, you want splice()
if (object.y == stage.stageHeight) {
objectarray.splice(objectarray.indexOf(object), 1)
}
Event Listeners
I didn't follow your quandary, so I'll just try to rewrite what I think you were trying to do.
package {
import flash.display.MovieClip;
public class Main extends MovieClip {
private var objectarray:Array = []; // Note, I haven't populated it with anything, I'm assuming you have.
private var theWall:MovieClip = new MovieClip(); // I haven't added this to the stage, or given it shape. You need to for hitTestObject to work.
public function Main() {
// This is your constructor.
for (var i:Number = 0; i < objectarray.length; i++) {
objectarray[i].addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, collision);
}
}
private function collision(e:Event):void {
if (e.currentTarget.hitTestObject(theWall)) {
trace('hit');
}
}
}
}
Of note, you may want to look at a guide to hitTestObject() if it's giving you issues.