AS3 How to make sprite face direction it is moving - actionscript-3

Question

So I have two movieclips: mcMain which is my character that faces the right and I have mcMainLeft which is my character that is facing the left. I tried to implement code so that when the left arrow is pressed, mcMainLeft is visible and is moving to the left. Same thing for mcMain and to the right. So what ends up happening is that when I move left, it moves left and the character faces left, but then I'll click the right arrow and move it right and it won't move my current character at the current location, it'll start from a different position. I'm not sure what the deal is.
Here is my code:
//These variables will note which keys are down
var leftKeyDown:Boolean = false;
var upKeyDown:Boolean = false;
var rightKeyDown:Boolean = false;
var downKeyDown:Boolean = false;
//the main character's speed
var mainSpeed:Number = 7;
//whether or not the main guy is jumping
var mainJumping:Boolean = false;
//how quickly should the jump start off
var jumpSpeedLimit:int = 15;
//the current speed of the jump;
var jumpSpeed:Number = 0;
//set coordinates of pacman left and right
mcMain.x = 270;
mcMain.y = 370;
mcMainLeft.x = 270;
mcMainLeft.y = 370;
//make pacman left invisible on startup
mcMainLeft.visible = false;
//move character function
mcMain.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, moveChar);
mcMainLeft.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, moveChar);
function moveChar(event:Event):void{
//if certain keys are down, then move the character
if(leftKeyDown ){
mcMainLeft.x -= mainSpeed;
}
if(rightKeyDown){
mcMain.x += mainSpeed;
}
if(upKeyDown || mainJumping){
mainJump();
}
}
//listening for the keystrokes
//this listener will listen for down keystrokes
stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, checkKeysDown);
function checkKeysDown(event:KeyboardEvent):void{
//making the booleans true based on the keycode
//WASD Keys or arrow keys
if(event.keyCode == 37 || event.keyCode == 65){
leftKeyDown = true;
mcMain.visible = false;
mcMainLeft.visible = true;
}
if(event.keyCode == 38 || event.keyCode == 87){
upKeyDown = true;
}
if(event.keyCode == 39 || event.keyCode == 68){
rightKeyDown = true;
mcMain.visible = true;
mcMainLeft.visible = false;
}
if(event.keyCode == 40 || event.keyCode == 83){
downKeyDown = true;
}
}
//this listener will listen for keys being released
stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, checkKeysUp);
function checkKeysUp(event:KeyboardEvent):void{
//making the booleans false based on the keycode
if(event.keyCode == 37 || event.keyCode == 65){
leftKeyDown = false;
}
if(event.keyCode == 38 || event.keyCode == 87){
upKeyDown = false;
}
if(event.keyCode == 39 || event.keyCode == 68){
rightKeyDown = false;
}
if(event.keyCode == 40 || event.keyCode == 83){
downKeyDown = false;
}
}
//jumping function
function mainJump():void{
//if main isn't already jumping
if(!mainJumping){
//then start jumping
mainJumping = true;
jumpSpeed = jumpSpeedLimit*-1;
mcMain.y += jumpSpeed;
mcMainLeft.y += jumpSpeed;
} else {
//then continue jumping if already in the air
if(jumpSpeed < 0){
jumpSpeed *= 1 - jumpSpeedLimit/75;
if(jumpSpeed > -jumpSpeedLimit/5){
jumpSpeed *= -1;
}
}
if(jumpSpeed > 0 && jumpSpeed <= jumpSpeedLimit){
jumpSpeed *= 1 + jumpSpeedLimit/50;
}
mcMain.y += jumpSpeed;
mcMainLeft.y += jumpSpeed;
//if main hits the floor, then stop jumping
//of course, we'll change this once we create the level
if(mcMain.y || mcMainLeft.y >= stage.stageHeight - mcMain.height || mcMainLeft.height){
mainJumping = false;
mcMain.y = stage.stageHeight - mcMain.height;
mcMainLeft.y = stage.stageHeight - mcMainLeft.height;
}
}
}

Answer 1

That's because you have basically two character objects (mcMain and mcMainLeft) but always only moving one of them. The other one is invisible and stays on the starting position.
Make a MovieClip with two frames, each holding the mcMain and mcMainLeft. Place a stop() at the first frame so the movieclip does not loop by itself. Then use that combined movieclip as your character:
function moveChar(event:Event):void{
//if certain keys are down, then move the character
if(leftKeyDown ){
myNewCharacter.x -= mainSpeed;
}
if(rightKeyDown){
myNewCharacter.x += mainSpeed;
}
if(upKeyDown || mainJumping){
mainJump();
}
}
And instead of switching the visibility jump to the correct frame of your new movieclip to display your character facing left or right:
myNewCharacter.gotoAndStop(2); // or 1

Answer 2

mcMain.scaleX = -1; // will face left
and
mcMain.scaleX = 1; // will face right
then you can use the value of .scaleX as your variable in logical blocks of code.