Change The Color Of A Movie Clip

setColor(mc, 0xFF0000);  //Changes the color of the movieclip to red

function setColor(mc, color):void {
 var colorTransform:ColorTransform = mc.transform.colorTransform;
 colorTransform.color = color;
 mc.transform.colorTransform = colorTransform;
}

Right-Click Context Menu

var menu:ContextMenu = new ContextMenu();
menu.hideBuiltInItems();
var menuItem:ContextMenuItem = new ContextMenuItem("Go to google");
menuItem.addEventListener(ContextMenuEvent.MENU_ITEM_SELECT, goToContextMenu); 
menu.customItems.push(menuItem);
this.contextMenu = menu;

function goToContextMenu(event:ContextMenuEvent):void {
   var link:URLRequest = new URLRequest("http://www.google.com");
   navigateToURL(link,"_blank");
}

Center A Display Object

centerObject(obj); //Centers a display object

function centerObject(obj:DisplayObject):void {
 obj.x = stage.stageWidth / 2 - obj.width / 2;
 obj.y = stage.stageHeight / 2 - obj.height / 2;
}

Draw A Triangle

var triangle:Shape; 

drawTriangle(0, 10, 100, 0xFF0000);

function drawTriangle(x:Number, y:Number, height:Number, color:uint){
  triangle = new Shape; 
  triangle.graphics.beginFill(color);
  triangle.graphics.moveTo(height/2, y);
  triangle.graphics.lineTo(height, height+y);
  triangle.graphics.lineTo(x, height+y);
  triangle.graphics.lineTo(height/2, y);
  addChild(triangle);  
}

Draw A Circle

var circle:Shape; 

drawCircle(100, 100, 75, 0xFF0000);

function drawCircle(x:Number, y:Number, radius:Number, color:uint){
 circle = new Shape; 
 circle.graphics.beginFill(color); 
 circle.graphics.drawCircle(x, y, radius);
 circle.graphics.endFill(); 
 addChild(circle);   
}

Draw A Rectangle

var rectangle:Shape; 

drawRectangle(0, 0, 200, 200, 0x0000FF); //Draws a rectangle at the origin

function drawRectangle(x:Number, y:Number, width:Number, height:Number, color:uint){
 rectangle = new Shape; 
 rectangle.graphics.beginFill(color); 
 rectangle.graphics.drawRect(x, y, width, height);
 rectangle.graphics.endFill(); 
 addChild(rectangle); 
}

Convert Degrees To Radians And Radians To Degrees

var degrees = 90;

var radians = degreesToRadians(degrees); 
degrees = radiansToDegrees(radians);

trace(radians); //Outputs 1.57
trace(degrees); //Outputs 90

function degreesToRadians(degrees:Number):Number {
 return degrees * Math.PI / 180;
}

function radiansToDegrees(radians:Number):Number{
 return radians * 180 / Math.PI;
}

Determine Whether Number is Even or Odd

function isEvenOdd(num):String {
  if ((num % 2) == 0) {
   return "even";
  } else {
 return "odd";
  }
}

trace(isEvenOdd(2)); //Outputs even
trace(isEvenOdd(7)); //Outputs odd

Generate Random String

function generateRandomString(strlen:Number):String{
  var chars:String = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";
  var num_chars:Number = chars.length - 1;
  var randomChar:String = "";
 
  for (var i:Number = 0; i < strlen; i++){
  randomChar += chars.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * num_chars));
  }
  return randomChar;
}
trace(generateRandomString(7));

Load And Parse XML File

XML File:

  
    picture1.jpg
    picture 1
    picture 1 description
  
  
    picture2.jpg
    picture 2
    picture 2 description
  
  
    picture3.jpg
    picture 3
    picture 3 description
  

Actionscript:

var xmlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var xmlData:XML = new XML();
xmlData.ignoreWhite = true;
xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadComplete);
xmlLoader.load(new URLRequest("slideshow.xml"));
 
function loadComplete(e:Event):void {
 xmlData = new XML(e.target.data);
 for each (var picture:XML in xmlData.picture) {
  trace("Url: " + picture.url);
  trace("Heading: " + picture.heading);
  trace("Description: " + picture.description);
 }
}

Determine Whether Number is a Prime Number

function isPrime(num) {
  for (var i=(num-1); i > 1; i--) {
    if ((num % i) == 0) {
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}

trace(isPrime(2)); //Outputs true
trace(isPrime(4)); //Outputs false
trace(isPrime(17)); //Outputs true

AS3 mailto

var email:String = "mailto:youremail@address.com";

button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,sendEmail);

function sendEmail(e:Event):void {
   navigateToURL(new URLRequest(email), "_self");
}

Create Empty MovieClip

Here is a snippet that creates an empty movieclip. This is useful when you want to load external images or swfs into it.

var emptyMovieClip:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
emptyMovieClip.name = "emptymc";
addChild(emptyMovieClip); 

Create Dynamic Textfield

var exampleTextField:TextField = new TextField();
exampleTextField.text = "your text goes here";
exampleTextField.width = 200;
addChild(exampleTextField);
exampleTextField.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;  
   
var format:TextFormat = new TextFormat();  
format.color = 0x990000;   
format.size = 20;      
exampleTextField.setTextFormat(format); 

Load Sound

import flash.events.Event;
import flash.media.Sound;
import flash.media.SoundChannel;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
 
var urlRequest:URLRequest;
var sound:Sound;

function loadSound(url:String):void {
    urlRequest = new URLRequest(url);
    sound = new Sound();
    sound.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadSoundComplete);
    sound.load(urlRequest);
}

function loadSoundComplete(e:Event):void {
 sound.play();
}

loadSound("sound.mp3");

Convert String To Number

var str:String = "10";
var num:Number = Number(str);

Get Current Date

var currentDate=new Date();
var month=currentDate.getMonth();
var day=currentDate.getDate();
var year=currentDate.getFullYear();

trace(month+"-"+ day + "-" + year); 

setInterval

Code snippet that calls a function after one second intervals and stops when the counter limit is reached.

import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.utils.*;

var duration:Number = 1000; 
var intervalId:uint;
var counter:uint = 0;
var endCount:uint = 10;
        
intervalId = setInterval(myFunction, duration, "start");
        
function myFunction():void {
     trace(arguments[0]);
     
     counter++;
     if(counter == endCount) {
          trace("end");
          clearInterval(intervalId);    
     }
}

Removes Whitespace From String

var str:String = "action script";

function removeWhiteSpace(str:String):String {
 var newstring = str.split(" ").join("");
 return newstring;
}

trace(removeWhiteSpace(str)); //Outputs actionscript

Factorial

function factorial(n):Number { 
 if (n < 2) {
  return 1;
 }
 return n*factorial(n-1);
}

trace(factorial(3)); //Outputs 6

AS3 getURL

var url:String = "http://actionscriptsnips.blogspot.com";
var target:String = "_blank";
navigateToURL(new URLRequest(url), target);

Traversing Array Using For Each Loop

var fruits:Array = new Array("apples", "oranges", "grapes", "pears");  

for each (var fruit:String in fruits ) {  
    trace(fruit); //Outputs apples, oranges, grapes, pears
} 

Populate ComboBox

Drag an instance of a combo box onto the stage and give it an instance name.

import flash.events.Event;
import fl.data.DataProvider;

var colors:Array = new Array();
colors[0] = "red";
colors[1] = "blue";
colors[2] = "green";
colors[3] = "yellow";
colors[4] = "purple";

comboBox.dataProvider = new DataProvider(colors);
comboBox.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, onChange);

function onChange(e:Event):void {
 trace(e.target.value);
}

Loading An External Swf

This code can be used to load an external image or swf.

import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.display.Loader;
import flash.events.Event;

function loadSwf(swf:String){
 var loader:Loader = new Loader();
 var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(swf);
 loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadComplete);
 loader.load(request);
}

function loadComplete(e:Event) {
 addChild(e.currentTarget.content);
}

loadSwf("yourswf.swf");

Count All Occurrences of a Character In a String

var str:String = "programmer";
var char:String = "m";

function countOccurences(str:String, char:String):Number {
 var count:Number = 0;
 
 for(var i=0; i < str.length; i++) {
  if (str.charAt(i) == char) {
   count++;
  }
 }
 return count;
}

trace(countOccurences(str, char)); //Outputs 2

Capitalize First Letter In String

var str = "actionscript";

function upperCase(str:String) : String {
 var firstChar:String = str.substr(0, 1); 
 var restOfString:String = str.substr(1, str.length); 
    
 return firstChar.toUpperCase()+restOfString.toLowerCase(); 
}

trace(upperCase(str)); //Outputs Actionscript

Find Min/Max Of Array Of Integers

var min:Number;
var max:Number;

var numbers:Array =  new Array(3, 5, 2, 1, 4);

function findMin(array:Array):Number {
 min = array[0];
 for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
  if (array[i] < min) {
   min = array[i];
  }
 }
 return min;
}


function findMax(array:Array):Number {
 max = array[0];
 for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
  if (array[i] > max) {
   max = array[i];
  }
 }
 return max;
}


trace(findMin(numbers)); //Outputs 1
trace(findMax(numbers)); //Outputs 5

Search And Replace Characters In String

Simple solution for replacing characters in a string

var str:String = "AS3 rocks!";
var search:String = "AS3";
var replace:String = "Actionscript 3";

function strReplace(str:String, search:String, replace:String):String {
 return str.split(search).join(replace);
}

trace(strReplace(str, search, replace)); //Outputs Actionscript 3 rocks!

Generate Random Number

function randomRange(max:Number, min:Number = 0):Number
{
     return Math.round(Math.random() * (max - min)) + min;
}

trace(randomRange(5)); //Outputs number between 0 and 5
trace(randomRange(10,1)); //Outputs number between 1 and 10

Reverse A String

var myString:String = "reverse";

trace(myString.split("").reverse().join("")); //Output - esrever

Email Validation

Function that validates email.

function isValidEmail(email:String):Boolean {   
 var emailExp:RegExp = /^[a-z][\w.-]+@\w[\w.-]+\.[\w.-]*[a-z][a-z]$/i;           
    return emailExp.test(email);     
 } 

trace(isValidEmail("admin@domain.com")); //Outputs true
trace(isValidEmail("admin.@.com")); //Outputs false