Webmaster Forum / Flash / Flash Actionscript / July 2008

OK, so it's been awhile since I've played around with arrays to this extreme
but I figured it out.  What you do is create a temporary array to store the
name of the current button that is being clicked.  You then remove that button
name from the fruit array.  When you click on another button, you again store
that button's name in the temp array and replace it with the button name that's
already in there. Sounds pretty simple - right? Well take a look at the logic
involved.

1) Start movie
Fruit array [btn0,btn1,btn2,btn3,btn4]  Temp array [empty]
2) Click on btn2
Is this the first button ever clicked on? YES
if(YES){
Store btn2 in Temp array and remove it from Fruit array
Temp array [btn2]  Fruit array [btn0,btn1,btn3,btn4]
}
3) Click on btn0
Is this the first button ever clicked on? NO
if(NO){
a) Store btn0 in Temp array
Temp array [btn2, btn0]

b) Remove it from Fruit array
Fruit array [btn1,btn3,btn4]

c) Replace it with btn2
Fruit array [btn1,btn2,btn3,btn4]

d) Remove btn2 from Temp array
Temp array [btn0]
}

4) Repeat 2 - 3 for subsequent button clicks.

Anyway - here's the script below that uses the logic above.  Hope it helps

var fruit:Array = ["btn0", "btn1", "btn2", "btn3", "btn4"];

// Temporary array that will store the name of the
// current button that is clicked on.
var temp:Array = new Array();

// This variable is used to determine whether a button
// has been clicked for the first time or not.
// See further comments for more info.
var firstClicked:Boolean = false;

function removeFromArray(target:String)
{
    for (i=0; i<fruit.length; i++) {
        // If this is NOT the first time we've clicked on
        // a button, then...
        if(firstClicked){
            // check the button name is in the array.  If so...
            if (fruit[i] == target){
                // remove it from the fruit array and replace it
                // with the first button in the temp array.
                fruit.splice(i,1,temp[0]);
                // Finally remove the first button in the temp array
                // leaving only the current button.
                temp.shift();
            }
        } else {
            // If this is the first time a button has been clicked, then
            // check that the name is in the fruit array and remove it.
            if (fruit[i] == target){
                fruit.splice(i,1);
            }
        }
    }
}

for(var i=0; i<5; i++) {
    var btnName:String = fruit[i];
    var btn:MovieClip = _root[btnName];
   
    btn.onRelease = function(){
        // Push the button name into the temp array
        temp.push(this._name);
       
        removeFromArray(this._name);
        trace("Temporary array = " + temp);
        trace("Fruit array = " + fruit);
       
        // So after the first button click, set this
        // to true so that all subsequent button clicks will
        // perform the swapping out routine in the
        // removeFromArray function.
        firstClicked = true;
    };
}

Well - now that we know what you want, then the following script will help you
get there.  In order for it to work though your buttons(btn1,btn2,etc) must be
movieclip symbols.  Inside each button you will need to have a movieclip symbol
with the instance name of 'bkg'.  This is the actual object that changes color
and can be whatever you like.

You can view my example
http://www.5degrees.co.nz/tests/SelectButtonExample.html and
http://www.5degrees.co.nz/tests/SelectButtonExample.zip it to see how it was
done.

var fruit:Array = new Array("btn0", "btn1", "btn2", "btn3", "btn4");

// Set the generic button color object
var btnColor:Color;

// Set colors for over and down states.  Change it to your colors
// Add another color if you want a different state
var orange:Number = 0xFF9900; // Rollout and Up state
var yellow:Number = 0xFFFF00; // Rollover and Down state

// This function takes the current movieclip(btn) that's been passed
// to it and...
function setButtonState(mc:MovieClip)
{
        // checks if it's in the fruit array.
    for(var i=0; i<fruit.length; i++){
                // If it is, then we change it's color to yellow
                // and disable the button
        if(fruit[i] == mc._name){
            btnColor = new Color(_root[mc._name].bkg);
            btnColor.setRGB(yellow);
            _root[mc._name].enabled = false;
        } else {
                        // We leave the rest of the buttons orange
                        // and enable the buttons
            btnColor = new Color(_root[btnArray[i]].bkg);
            btnColor.setRGB(orange);
            _root[btnArray[i]].enabled = true;
        }
    }
}

// Loop thru the current object and return...
for(var btn in this){
        // any movieclips with instance names where
        // the first 3 letters have "btn" in them
    if(substring(btn, 0, 3) == "btn"){
                // Store the names and make them a movieclip
                // object so that it can have event handlers
        var btn:MovieClip = this[btn];
       
                // Set to yellow on Rollover
        btn.onRollOver = function(){
            btnColor = new Color(this.bkg);
            btnColor.setRGB(yellow);
        }

                // Set back to orange on Rollover
        btn.onRollOut = function(){
            btnColor = new Color(this.bkg);
            btnColor.setRGB(orange);
        }

                // Call the setButtonState function and pass
                // in this button mc
        btn.onRelease = function(){
            setButtonState(this);
        }
    }
}

i know you're trying to help noel, but you're over-complicating this and
causing confusion.

the following is all that's needed:

var btnA:Array = [];  // list your button instance names here

var downCol:Number =  // assign your colors
var upCol:Number=
var overCol:Number=

for(var i=0;i<btnA;i++){
    btnA[i].col = new Color(btnA[i].bg);  // where bg is the movieclip in your
button whose color you want to change
    btnA[i].onRollOver=function(){
        this.col.setRGB(overCol);
    }
    btnA[i].onRollOut=function(){
        if(this!=lastClickedBtn){
            this.col.setRGB(upCol);
        }
    }
    btnA[i].onRelease=function(){
        lastClickedBtn.col.setRGB(upCol);
        lastClickedBtn=this;
    }
}