var words:String = "one two three four five";
trace("two: ", words.indexOf("two"));
var letters:String = "abcd";
trace("d: ",letters.indexOf("d"));
trace("z: ",letters.indexOf("z"));
/*
outputs:
two: 4
d: 3
z: -1
*/
indexOf() searches a string for another string and returns an index… in line 3 above, I search the words string for the smaller string “two” and indexOf() gives me the index of the letter “t”. If indexOf() doesn’t find anything it will return -1 (as in the case of line 9).
I seem to recall using this in some unexpected places. I’ll see if I can dig up an example over the next few days.