Action Script

Replacing Strings in AS3

Although this may be pretty basic - when it comes to dealing with strings, one of the most valuable methods is no doubt the split().join().

So let’s first go over split().

This is from adobe’s live docs:

split(delimiter:String, [limit:Number]) : Array

Split has two Parameters:
delimiter:String - A string; the character or string at which my_str splits.

limit:Number [optional] - The number of items to place into the array.

Ok - don’t get confused. Essentially if you have the string:

var myString:String = “% B % C % D % E % F “;;

The first parameter (delimeter) is whatever character(s) you want to use for splitting the other characters up. So:

trace(myString.split(“%”)); // outputs the array , B , C , D , E , F 
 

The second parameter basically tells split how many times you want to do it.
trace(myString.split(”%”, 4) // outputs: B , C , D

So a few really cool applications of this are:

1 - using it to parse out data.
2 - using it to replace or remove a string.

Let’s say you have some external data you are loading in - but you don’t want to use XML for some reason. You can separate your content by inserting a weird string of characters between your content:

var theContent:String = “this is some content #%?and some more #%?”
var contentArray:Array = theContent.split(“#%?”);
trace(contentArray); // outputs: this is some content , and some more 
 

The other option - the real money maker - is split().join()

This is the easiest way to replace things in a string.

for removal:

var theContent:String = “this is some content #%?and some more #%?”
theContent = theContent.split(“#%?”).join(“”);
trace(theContent); // outputs: this is some content and some more 
 

For replacing strings:

var theContent:String = “I hate when content has words like, ‘damn’ in it”
theContent = theContent.split(“damn”).join(“darn”);
trace(theContent); // outputs: I hate when content has words like, ‘darn’ in it 
 

Happy Scripting!