AS3 Basics By Ampy
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VARIABLES

	The purpose of a variable is to store data an example of this would be as shown below:

		var myvar:String = "hello!";

	Now I'm going to break down each part of it:

		var - This basically tells flash you want to create a new variable. It's a neccessity.

		myvar- This does not have to be myvar and I do not recommend using that name. It was an example.
		       It can be ANYTHING you want it to be, it's typical to name it based on what your using
			   it for so you can keep track of things

		: - This is neccessary, you just have to do it.

		String - This is the datatype I chose, their are various data-types in AS3, I'm going to list
		         some of them below.

				 DATATYPES
				 -----------------------------------------

				 String - Any words/text

					EXAMPLE: var hi:String = "Sup";

				 Boolean - This can be equal to true or false

					EXAMPLE: var bool:Boolean = false;

						If you don't set it equal to anything, by default it's false

				 int - An integer

				    EXAMPLE: var myInteger:int = 3;

				 Number - A Number, int is recommended over this due to speed/efficiency

					EXAMPLE: var myNum:Number = 7;

				 Sprite - Basically a Image


					EXAMPLE: var spr:Sprite = new Sprite();

						It's like an image, so therefore you have to create a new version or instance of it

				 Array - Holds multiple variables or values

					EXAMPLE: var arr:Array = new Array("hi", "sup", "yay", "wat", "wut");

						It's basically multiple variables, I'll go over have to access them in the
						Array section.

		I'm not going to explain every single one you'll have to do some studying but I
		will list some of them below:

			TextField
			MovieClip
			Object
			Vector
			URLVariables
			URLRequest
			URLLoader

			That's not all of them, but not gonna list all of them.

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ARRAYS

		Okay so I already explained how to use/create a array, now I'm going to explain
		how to access them. Say I have this line of code:

			var arr:Array = new Array("hi", "wat", "wut", "k");

			This could be accessed both the following ways:

				arr[0];

				Each one in the array has a specific number or index. Which goes up by 1 for each one
				but starting at 0, so:

				arr[0] - "hi"
				arr[1] - "wat"
				arr[2] - "wut"
				arr[3] = "k"

				A Full EXAMPLE:

				var arr:Array = new Array("hi", "k", "y");

					trace(arr[0]);


				I know I haven't been over this yet, but what trace, does it output something to the output
				panel in flash. Here arr[0] has a stored value of "hi". So it would output "hi" in flash.

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IF STATEMENTS

		Okay so if statements are pretty much self explanatory. If this is true or has happened do this.
		Here's an example:

		var str:String = "hi";

			if(str == "hi")
			{

				trace("str is equal to hi");

			}

		You'll notice that I didn't use = I used ==, this is an operator in flash. I'll list operators
		along with their definition below:

		== - Is equal to
		!= - is Not equal to
		< - is less than
		> - is greater than
		<= - is less than or equal to
		>= - is greater than or equal to
		+ - Addition
		+= - Plus the current value of what your adding
		- Subtraction
		-= Minus the current value of what your subtracting
		* - Multiply
		*= Multiply the current value of what your multiplying
		/ - Division
		/= Divide the current value of what your dividing

		Their's a few more but these are all you need to know for now. So a basic math example:

		var myInt:int = 3;

			if(myInt < 3)
			{

				trace("myInt is less than 3");

				} else {

					trace("myInt is not less than 3");

		Notice I used else here. It should be self explanatory if it isn't ask me.

		Now I'm going to go over else if even though I shouldn't really, but whatever.

		var myInt:int = 6;

			if(myInt == 6)
			{

				trace("equals 6");

				} else if(myInt > 6) {

					trace("is greater than 6");

		Basically else if is saying if this isn't true, then if this is true try this.

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EVENT LISTENERS

	Okay so this is getting to the cooler stuff event listeners. Making buttons work and stuff.
	Here's an example of making a button work.

		instance_name.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, function_name);

			Let's say in place of function name I have buttonClicked.

		FULL CODE:

		instance_name.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, buttonClicked);

		function buttonClicked(e:MouseEvent):void
		{

			gotoAndStop(2);

		}

		Okay so what I did here is add an event listener. You'll have to study all of the events
		I don't even know ALL of them myself.

		Next I declared a function, and then the function name which is after the comma in the event listener
		You'll get errors if the function names not the same. Next in the parantheses I said e, that can be
		anything you want, but it's typical to use e or event their to keep track of things. Next you always
		use colon :, then the event you used in the event listener which in this case is MouseEvent. After that
		close parantheses, and :void, this isn't neccessary in some concerns but I treat it mandatory or neccessary.
		Because 99% of the time you'll be using it.

		What gotoAndStop(2); is doing is telling flash to goto and stop at frame 2. If you don't have a frame inserted on the
		timeline it won't go there, because flash has no clue what frame to go to because it theoretically doesn't
		exist. 2 can be any frame of course, I was using 2 as an example however.

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LOOPS

			Loops are used to execute code repeatedly without having to use thousands of lines
			to do one thing. Their's several types of loops.

			FOR LOOP

			EXAMPLE:

			var myInt:int = 50;

				for(var i:int = 0; i < myInt; i++)
				{

					trace("Is less than");

				}

			I declared a variable called myInt and gave it value of 50. A for loop is initialized or started
            by using the keyword for then parentheses. In their I created a variable named i and gave it a value
            0. I used i because it is the most COMMON in for loops. Then I said without using if. If i is less than
            myInts value. Increment i's value or go up by one.

			Since I didn't cover incrementing this is the only 2 ways:

			++ - Goes up by 1 each time
			--  Goes down by 1 each time

			Back to the for loop example now. Everytime i is still less than myInt, trace or output "Is less than"
			to flashs output panel until it reaches i's value.

			DO LOOP

			A do loop makes whatever your doing true no matter what so..

			var myInt:int = 3;

				do {

				myInt++;

				}

			That's basic usage.

			WHILE LOOP

			A while loop is basically saying while this is this do this, so heres an example:

				var myInt:int = 5;

					while(myInt > 0)
					{

						do {

						myInt--;

						}
					}

			Their's a few more but their a little more advanced so I'm not going to go over them yet
			, but here's a full example of the 3 loops I showed you in this section:

				var arr:Array = new Array("hi", "bob", "todd", "y, "k");
				var myInt:int = 0;

					for(var i:int = 0; i < arr.length; i++)
					{

						trace("arr's length " + arr.length);

						while(i < arr.length)
						{

							var tf:TextField = new TextField();
							tf.text = "Text!";
							addChild(tf);

						}

							do {

								myInt++;

							}

			OKay so here I created an array and with a for loop, said if i less than the number of values
            in the array. trace "arr's length" plus it's actual length by using the length property.

			Then I said while i is stil less than arrs length, create a new textfield and I gave it text of
			"Text!";

			Then what add child does is add it to the stage and make it visible to you
			Then the do loop executes code immediately and increments myInt's value.

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