Booleans and XMLLoader

[mindspaced]

I have the following function, which is behaving unexpectedly:

	private function _xmlCompleteHandler(event:Event):void {			
		var items:XMLList = (_xmlLoader.content as XML).item;

		for each (var item:XML in items) {
			if(item.@hasSWF){
				trace("Says true"+"::"+item.@hasSWF);
			}else{
				trace("Says false"+"::"+item.@hasSWF);
			}
			if(item.@hasSWF==true){
				trace("Says true"+"::"+item.@hasSWF);
			}else{
				trace("Says false"+"::"+item.@hasSWF);
			}
		}
	}

The results I get are:

Says true::false

Says false::false

Says true::true

Says true::true

 

Why does the first result appear contradictory? Is it related to the XMLLoader, or a syntax issue I'm unaware of?

[GreenSock]

Yeah, that's not an error. Remember, XML content is basically text (Strings), so you cannot expect it to be something else, like a Boolean or Number. The String "false" is NOT the same thing as the Boolean value false. If there is ANY String at all, Flash will evaluate this as being true:

 

var myString:String = "false";
if (myString) {
  trace("true :: "+myString);
}

 

But you could do this instead:

 

if (Boolean(myString == "true" || myString == "1")) {
   trace("true :: "+myString);
}

 

Make sense now?

[mindspaced]

Sure does. Thanks for the help. This was just a test case, so I realize that it could have been coded more succinctly. I was just trying to sort out why if(item.@hasSWF) was not working the way I expected. Now I know that XML content ends up being a string.

 

Thanks!