Concept/Language Construct | Java 5.0 | ActionScript 3.0 |
Class library packaging | .jar | .swc |
Inheritance | class Employee extends Person{…} | class Employee extends Person{…}
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Variable declaration and initialization | String firstName=”John”; Date shipDate=new Date(); int i; int a, b=10; double salary; | var firstName:String=”John”; var shipDate:Date=new Date(); var i:int; var a:int, b:int=10; var salary:Number; |
Undeclared variables | n/a | It’s an equivalent to the wild card type notation *. If you declare a variable but do not specify its type, the * type will apply. A default value: undefined var myVar:*;
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Variable scopes | block: declared within curly braces,
member: declared on the class level
no global variables | No block scope: the minimal scope is a function
local: declared within a function
member: declared on the class level
If a variable is declared outside of any function or class definition, it has global scope. |
Strings | Immutable, store sequences of two-byte Unicode characters | Immutable, store sequences of two-byte Unicode characters |
Terminating statements with semicolons | A must | If you write one statement per line you can omit it. |
Strict equality operator | n/a | === for strict non-equality use !== |
Constant qualifier | The keyword final
final int STATE=”NY”; | The keyword const
const STATE:int =”NY”; |
Type checking | Static (checked at compile time) | Dynamic (checked at run-time) and static (it’s so called ‘strict mode’, which is default in Flex Builder) |
Type check operator | instanceof | is – checks data type, i.e. if (myVar is String){…}
The is operator is a replacement of older instanceof |
The as operator | n/a | Similar to is operator, but returns not Boolean, but the result of expression:
var orderId:String=”123”; var orderIdN:Number=orderId as Number; trace(orderIdN);//prints 123
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Primitives | byte, int, long, float, double,short, boolean, char | all primitives in ActionScript are objects.
The following lines are equivalent; var age:int = 25; var age:int = new int(25);
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Complex types | n/a | Array, Date, Error, Function, RegExp, XML, and XMLList |
Array declaration and instantiation | int quarterResults[]; quarterResults =
int quarterResults[]={25,33,56,84};
| var quarterResults:Array or var quarterResults:Array=[];
var quarterResults:Array= AS3 also has associative arrays that uses named elements instead of numeric indexes (similar to Hashtable). |
The top class in the inheritance tree | Object
| Object |
Casting syntax: cast the class Object to Person:
| Person p=(Person) myObject;
| var p:Person= Person(myObject); or var p:Person= myObject as Person; |
upcasting | class Xyz extends Abc{} Abc myObj = new Xyz();
| class Xyz extends Abc{} var myObj:Abc=new Xyz(); |
Un-typed variable | n/a | var myObject:* var myObject: |
packages | package com.xyz; class myClass {…} | package com.xyz{ class myClass{…} } ActionScript packages can include not only classes, but separate functions as well |
Class access levels | public, private, protected if none is specified, classes have package access level | public, private, protected if none is specified, classes have internal access level (similar to package access level in Java) |
Custom access levels: namespaces | n/a | Similar to XML namespaces. namespace abc; abc function myCalc(){} or abc::myCalc(){} use namespace abc ; |
nsole output | System.out.println(); | // in debug mode only trace(); |
imports | import com.abc.*; import com.abc.MyClass; | import com.abc.*; import com.abc.MyClass; packages must be imported even if the class names are fully qualified in the code. |
Unordered key-value pairs | Hashtable, Map Hashtable friends = new Hashtable();
friends.put("good", friends.put("best", friends.put("bad",
String bestFriend= friends.get(“best”); // bestFriend is Bill | Associative Arrays Allows referencing its elements by names instead of indexes. var friends:Array=new Array(); friends["best"]="Bill"; friends["bad"]="Masha";
var bestFriend:String= friends[“best”] friends.best=”Alex”; Another syntax: var car:Object = {make:"Toyota", model:"Camry"}; trace (car["make"], car.model); // Output: Toyota Camry |
Hoisting | n/a | Compiler moves all variable declaration to the top of the function, so you can use a variable name even before it’s been explicitly declared in the code. |
Instantiation objects from classes | Customer cmr = new Customer(); Class cls = Class.forName(“Customer”); Object myObj= cls.newInstance(); | var cmr:Customer = new Customer(); var cls:Class = flash.util.getClassByName("Customer"); |
Private classes | private class myClass{…} | There is no private classes in AS3.
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Private constructors | Supported. Typical use: singleton classes. | Not available. Implementation of private constructors is postponed as they are not the part of the ECMAScript standard yet. To create a Singleton, use public static getInstance(), which sets a private flag instanceExists after the first instantiation. Check this flag in the public constructor, and if instanceExists==true, throw an error. |
Class and file names | A file can have multiple class declarations, but only one of them can be public, and the file must have the same name as this class. | A file can have multiple class declarations, but only one of them can be placed inside the package declaration, and the file must have the same name as this class. |
What can be placed in a package | Classes and interfaces | Classes, interfaces, variables, functions, namespaces, and executable statements. |
Dynamic classes (define an object that can be altered at runtime by adding or changing properties and methods). | n/a | dynamic class Person { var name:String; } //Dynamically add a variable // and a function Person p= new Person(); p.name=”Joe”; p.age=25; p.printMe = function () { trace (p.name, p.age); } p.printMe(); // Joe 25 |
function closures | n/a. Closure is a proposed addition to Java 7. | myButton.addEventListener(“click”, myMethod); A closure is an object that represents a snapshot of a function with its lexical context (variable’s values, objects in the scope). A function closure can be passed as an argument and executed without being a part of any object |
Abstract classes | supported | n/a |
Function overriding | supported | Supported. You must use the override qualifier |
Function overloading | supported | not supported |
Interfaces | class A implements B{…} interfaces can contain method declarations and final variables. | class A implements B{…} interfaces can contain only function declarations. |
Exception handling | Keywords: try, catch, throw, finally, throws
Uncaught exceptions are propagated to the calling method. | Keywords: try, catch, throw, finally
A method does not have to declare exceptions. Can throw not only Error objects, but also numbers:
throw 25.3;
Flash Player terminates the script in case of uncaught exception.
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Regular expressions | Supported | Supported |