Category Archives: dynamic

Object Parsing (object from string #2)

By Zevan | April 24, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. var str:String = '{numA:100, numB:100, stringA:"hi there", object:{red:155, green:155, blue: 255}, array1D:[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, "six"], array2D:[[1,0,0], [0,1,0], [0,0,"z"]], color:0xFF0000}'
  2.  
  3. var obj:Object = toObject(str);//, true); // comment the "true" in for some debug info
  4.  
  5. // acess every value in the object for testing purposes
  6. trace(obj.numA);
  7. trace(obj.numB);
  8. trace(obj.stringA);
  9. trace(obj.object.red, obj.object.green, obj.object.blue);
  10. trace(obj.array1D +" testing access: " + obj.array1D[3]);
  11. trace(obj.array2D + " testing access: " + obj.array2D[1] + "  -  " + obj.array2D[2][2]);
  12. trace(obj.color);
  13.  
  14. /*outputs:
  15. 100
  16. 100
  17. hi there
  18. 155 155 255
  19. 1,2,3,4,5,six testing access: 4
  20. 1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,z testing access: 0,1,0  -  z
  21. 16711680
  22. */
  23.  
  24. function toObject(str:String, debug:Boolean=false):Object{
  25.     var cmds:Array = new Array();
  26.     var stack:String = "";
  27.     // skip first {
  28.     str = str.replace(/^\s+\{|^\{/, "");
  29.     var obj:Object = new Object();
  30.     for (var i:int = 0; i<str.length; i++){
  31.         var char:String = str.charAt(i);
  32.         if (char == ":"){
  33.             cmds.push(["name:", stack])
  34.             stack = "";
  35.             char = "";
  36.         }else
  37.         if (char == "," || char == "}"){
  38.             if (stack != ""){
  39.               cmds.push(["value:", stack]);
  40.             }
  41.             stack = "";
  42.             char = "";
  43.         }else
  44.         if (char == '"'){
  45.             stack = '"';
  46.             for (j = i + 1; j <str.length; j++){
  47.                 char = str.charAt(j);
  48.                 stack+=char;
  49.                 i++;
  50.                 if (char == '"'){
  51.                      break;
  52.                 }
  53.             }
  54.             cmds.push(["value:", stack]);
  55.             stack = "";
  56.             char = "";
  57.         }else
  58.         if (char == "{"){
  59.             cmds.push(["object:", stack]);
  60.             for (var j:int = i; j <str.length; j++){
  61.                 char = str.charAt(j);
  62.                 stack+=char;
  63.                 i++;
  64.                 if (char == "}"){
  65.                      break;
  66.                 }
  67.             }
  68.             cmds.push(["value:", stack]);
  69.             stack = "";
  70.             char = "";
  71.         }else
  72.         if (char == "["){
  73.             cmds.push(["array:", stack]);
  74.             stack = "";
  75.             char = "";
  76.         }else if (char == "]"){
  77.             if (stack != ""){
  78.                 cmds.push(["value:", stack]);
  79.             }
  80.             stack = "";
  81.             char = "";
  82.             i++;
  83.         }
  84.         stack += char;
  85.     }
  86.     // show some debug info
  87.     if (debug){
  88.         for (i = 0; i<cmds.length; i++) trace(cmds[i]);
  89.     }
  90.     // build the object
  91.     var prop:String;
  92.     var arrayMode:Boolean = false;
  93.     var nest:int = 0;
  94.     for (i = 0; i<cmds.length; i++){
  95.         if (cmds[i][0] == "name:"){
  96.             prop = cmds[i][1].replace(/\s/g, "");
  97.             arrayMode = false;
  98.             nest = 0;
  99.         }else if (cmds[i][0] == "value:"){
  100.             if (arrayMode == false){
  101.               obj[prop] = valueType(cmds[i][1]);
  102.             }else{
  103.                 // populate array
  104.                 if (nest == 1){
  105.                   obj[prop].push(valueType(cmds[i][1]))
  106.                 }else{
  107.                   obj[prop][nest - 2].push(valueType(cmds[i][1]))
  108.                 }
  109.             }
  110.         }else if (cmds[i][0] == "object:"){
  111.             i++;
  112.             obj[prop] = toObject(cmds[i][1], debug);
  113.         }else if (cmds[i][0] == "array:"){
  114.             arrayMode = true;
  115.             nest++;
  116.             if (nest == 1){
  117.                 // create array
  118.                 obj[prop] = new Array()
  119.             }else{
  120.                 // nested array
  121.                 obj[prop].push(new Array());
  122.             }
  123.         }
  124.     }
  125.     return obj;
  126. }
  127.  
  128. function valueType(val:*):* {
  129.     if (isNaN(Number(val))) {
  130.            // remove leading and trailing white
  131.            // remove "" around strings
  132.            val = val.replace(/^s+|s+$/g,"").replace(/^"|"$/g,"");
  133.            //  see if it's a boolean
  134.            if (val == "true"){
  135.                val = true;
  136.            }else if (val == "false"){
  137.                val = false
  138.            }
  139.     } else {
  140.         val = Number(val);
  141.     }
  142.     return val;
  143. }

This rather large code snippet parses ActionScript style Object syntax. While this is by no means a complete parser - it was easy to write and saved me a great deal of time on a project recently....

I specifically needed support for 1D and 2D arrays as Object properties. If that weren't the case I would have used something simple like yesterdays method. The array support won't work with anything higher than a 2D array (for now... may fix that soon). For fun I also added nested Object support - this doesn't have any dimensional limitation so you can nest as many objects as you want. For instance.. this works just fine:

CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. var gameUser:Object = toObject('{name:"Mr.S", alive:true, stats:{lives:100, points:1200, data:[100,12,40,12,90], plant:{branch:{leaves:["red, "green", "blue"]}}}');
  2.  
  3. trace(gameUser.stats.plant.branch.leaves[0]);
  4. trace(gameUser.stats.lives);
  5. // boolean support
  6. trace("not true is false: ", !gameUser.alive);
  7. /*outputs:
  8. red
  9. 100
  10. not true is false:  false
  11. */

You'll also notice the added boolean support in the above example. Which was suggested by katopz in the comments of yesterdays post.

Definitely need to add a word of warning here... I wouldn't be surprised if there were a bug or two lurking in this code. The Objects I've been parsing with it are all quite similar... so use at your own risk.

UPDATEs - Known Issues:
1) fixed a bug where if a String property contains a ,{}[] or : character the parser failed.

Also posted in string manipulation, strings | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Object from String

By Zevan | April 23, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. var str:String='{x: 10, y:10, width:100, heigth:100, name:"myClip", type:"clip"}';
  2.  
  3. var obj:Object=toObject(str);
  4.  
  5. trace(obj.x + obj.width, obj.name, obj.type);
  6.  
  7. function toObject(str:String):Object {
  8.     str=str.replace(/\{|\}/g,"");
  9.     // to an array of name value pairs [0] = name, [1] = value etc...
  10.     var pairs:Array=str.split(/\:|\,\s+/);
  11.     var obj:Object = new Object();
  12.     for (var i:int = 0; i<pairs.length; i+=2) {
  13.         obj[pairs[i]]=numOrString(pairs[i+1]);
  14.     }
  15.     return obj;
  16. }
  17. function numOrString(val:*):* {
  18.     if (isNaN(Number(val))) {
  19.         if (val.charAt(0) == '"' && val.charAt(val.length - 1) == '"'){
  20.             val = val.substr(1, val.length - 2);
  21.         }
  22.     } else {
  23.         val=Number(val);
  24.     }
  25.     return val;
  26. }

A very limited way to parse an object from a string... Tomorrow I'll post a better version of this that's a good deal more complex and doesn't really use regular expressions... This works nicely if you don't have arrays as Object properties...

Also posted in string manipulation, strings | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Object Argument w/ Defaults

By Zevan | April 17, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. var boxDefaults:Object = {x:10, y:10, width:100, height:100, lineThickness:0, lineColor:0x000000, lineAlpha:1, fillColor:0xCCCCCC, fillAlpha:1}
  2. function drawBox(params:Object=null):void {
  3.     var p:Object=setDefaults(boxDefaults, params);
  4.     graphics.lineStyle(p.lineThickness, p.lineColor, p.lineAlpha);
  5.     graphics.beginFill(p.fillColor, p.fillAlpha);
  6.     graphics.drawRect(p.x, p.y, p.width, p.height);
  7. }
  8.  
  9. function setDefaults(defaults:Object, params:Object=null):Object {
  10.     if (params==null) {
  11.         params = new Object();
  12.     }
  13.     for (var key:String in defaults) {
  14.         if (params[key]==null) {
  15.             params[key]=defaults[key];
  16.         }
  17.     }
  18.     return params;
  19. }
  20.  
  21. // test it out... notice that all object properties are optional and have default values                                         
  22. drawBox();
  23.  
  24. drawBox({x:200, y:200, lineColor:0xFF0000, lineThickness:2, fillColor:0xCCCC00});
  25.  
  26. drawBox({x:200, y:320, width:50, height:150, lineAlpha:0, fillColor:0x416CCF});

This is a technique I've been using recently... inspired by tweening engines. I find this to be suitable when a function or object constructor has lots and lots of arguments (80% of the time if I have a function or object constructor with too many arguments I re-think my design, but every now and then I use this technique).

Basically, the function or object constructor takes one argument of type Object - once passed into the function this Object argument is passed to the setDefault() function which populates it with any properties that it's missing - each property has a default value. As a result you end up with an easy to read function call with a variable number of arguments and well thought out default values.

This snippet just draws a box (not very interesting or usefull) - I wanted to showcase the technique using a simple function. As a real world example... I recently used this technique in a mini-library I created for use with Box2D... will be posting the library in the next few days.... it's a library for fast prototyping and custom rendering.

Also posted in functions | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Flashvars

By Zevan | March 22, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. // variable is passed into the swf via Javascript (most likely swfObject)
  2. // myswf.swf?myFlashVar="a new value"
  3.  
  4. var myFlashVar:String = "Some Default Value";
  5. if (root.loaderInfo.parameters.myFlashVar){
  6.    myFlashVar = root.loaderInfo.parameters.myFlashVar;
  7. }

Getting at flashvars in AS3 requires a bit more typing than it did in AS2. Above is a technique I find myself using from time to time. Usually for paths to xml or dynamic callouts (large buttons with text, an image and a link that change frequently).

Also posted in misc | Tagged , | Leave a comment