. (dot)

Availability

Flash Player 4.

Usage

object.property_or_method
instancename.variable
instancename.childinstance.variable

Parameters

object An instance of a class. The object can be an instance of any of the built-in ActionScript classes or a custom class. This parameter is always to the left of the dot (.) operator.

property_or_method The name of a property or method associated with an object. All of the valid method and properties for the built-in classes are listed in the method and property summary tables for that class. This parameter is always to the right of the dot (.) operator.

instancename The instance name of a movie clip.

childinstance A movie clip instance that is a child of, or nested in, another movie clip.

variable A variable on the Timeline of the movie clip instance name to the left of the dot (.) operator.

Returns

Nothing.

Description

Operator; used to navigate movie clip hierarchies in order to access nested (child) movie clips, variables, or properties. The dot operator is also used to test or set the properties of an object, execute a method of an object, or create a data structure.

Example

The following statement identifies the current value of the variable hairColor in the movie clip person_mc.

person_mc.hairColor

This is equivalent to the following Flash 4 syntax:

/person_mc:hairColor