LiveDocs Comments - flash - 9.0 - main - 00000092.html

flash/9.0/main/00000092.html

2008-04-08T15:33:43

I've been trying to make an example that displays the difference between a shallow and deep copy. So far I haven't been able to find any difference between using the slice/concat methods and the clone function provided in this section. Can someone take a look at my code and tell me what I'm doing wrong?

//-- CLONING ARRAYS --\\
trace("**Cloning Arrays **");
var proto:Object = true;
var original:Array = new Array();
original = [proto];
var shallow:Array = original.slice();
var deep:Array = clone(original);

trace("\tDeep copy = " + deep); // output: true
trace("\tShallow copy = " + shallow); // output: true

trace("\n***VALUE CHANGED***");
proto = false; // object value is changed

trace("\tDeep copy = " + deep); // output: true
trace("\tShallow copy = " + shallow); // output: true <-- should be false ??

// Clone function
import flash.utils.ByteArray;

function clone(source:Object):* // function for deep copy
{
var myBA:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
myBA.writeObject(source);
myBA.position = 0;
return(myBA.readObject());
}

maybe I'm just confused as to what deep and shallow copies are any explanations would be great thanks.

flash/9.0/main/00000092.html

swartz1999 — 2008-03-27T18:29:59

ByteArray readObject() does not work with display objects and other objects that are defined by Flash Player. Complex objects that are defined in ActionScript (from simple types) work.

flash/9.0/main/00000092.html

Stick1337 — 2008-03-25T14:01:57

I know slightly less than nothing about the ByteArray class, but the example given in the documentation for cloning an array doesn't appear to work. I'm getting an error that looks a lot like "Type Coercion failed: cannot convert Object@154003f9 to flash.display.DisplayObject."

Any thoughts on why? The array I'm trying to clone contains instances of a class that extends the Sprite class...Thanks!