LoadVars.decode

Another hidden away feature of Flash MX, this time a method of the LoadVars object. This little method, is the method that the LoadVars object uses internally to decode your name/value pairs into object properties and values…

LoadVars.decode is inherited by all instances of the LoadVars object. The method accepts one argument, the argument is a string that contains name/value pairs, that you wish to be converted into object properties and associated values.

Name/value pairs look like this:

myvariable=value&myothervariable=anothervalue

This hidden method, will convert the above name/value pairs into two properties ‘myvariable’ and ‘myothervariable’, the values of these properties are the associated values in the name/value pair string, so the value of ‘myvariable’ in the above string is ‘value’ and the value of ‘myothervariable’ in the above string is ‘anothervalue’. Heres a little code example to show you what this method does:

//create a new instance of the LoadVars object
myvars=new LoadVars()

//call the method with our name/value pair string
myvars.decode('name=Guy&age=18&icq=71063418')

//iterate over all the properties in the 'myvars' object
for(var i in myvars){

    //trace the property name and property value
    trace(i+':'+myvars[i])
}

The output of the above code is:

name:Guy
age:18
icq:71063418

This method has not yet been added to the Macromedia Flash MX Actionscript Dictionary Errata.