32 Chapter 2: ActionScript Basics
Parentheses
When you define a function, place any parameters inside parentheses:
function myFunction (name, age, reader){
// your code here
}
When you call a function, include any parameters passed to the function in parentheses, as
shown here:
myFunction ("Steve", 10, true);
You can also use parentheses to override the ActionScript order of precedence or to make your
ActionScript statements easier to read. (See “Operator precedence and associativity” on page 45.)
You also use parentheses to evaluate an expression on the left side of a dot in dot syntax. For
example, in the following statement, the parentheses cause
new Color(this) to evaluate and
create a Color object:
onClipEvent(enterFrame) {
(new Color(this)).setRGB(0xffffff);
}
If you don’t use parentheses, you must add a statement to evaluate the expression:
onClipEvent(enterFrame) {
myColor = new Color(this);
myColor.setRGB(0xffffff);
}
You can check for matching parentheses in your scripts; see “Checking syntax and punctuation”
on page 66.
Comments
Using comments to add notes to scripts is highly recommended. Comments are useful for
keeping track of what you intended and for passing information to other developers if you work
in a collaborative environment or are providing samples. Even a simple script is easier to
understand if you make notes as you create it.
To indicate that a line or portion of a line is a comment, precede the comment with two forward
slashes (
//):
on(release) {
// create new Date object
myDate = new Date();
currentMonth = myDate.getMonth();
// convert month number to month name
monthName = calcMonth(currentMonth);
year = myDate.getFullYear();
currentDate = myDate.getDate();
}
When Syntax coloring is enabled (see “Syntax highlighting” on page 61), comments are gray by
default. Comments can be any length without affecting the size of the exported file, and they do
not need to follow rules for ActionScript syntax or keywords.
If you want to “comment out” an entire portion of your script, place it in a comment block rather
than adding
// at the beginning of each line. This technique is easier and is useful when you want
to test only parts of a script by commenting out large chunks of it.
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