How to call a variable of a function using concatenation (AS3) - actionscript-3

Question

I need to acess a variable inside this function using concatenation, following this example:
public function movePlates():void
{
var plate1:Plate;
var plate2:Plate;
var cont:uint = 0;
for (var i:uint = 0; i < LAYER_PLATES.numChildren; i++)
{
var tempPlate:Plate = LAYER_PLATES.getChildAt(i) as Plate;
if (tempPlate.selected)
{
cont ++;
this["plate" + cont] = LAYER_PLATES.getChildAt(i) as Plate;
}
}
}
EDIT:
public function testFunction():void
{
var test1:Sprite = new Sprite();
var test2:Sprite = new Sprite();
var tempNumber:Number;
this.addChild(test1);
test1.x = 100;
this.addChild(test2);
test2.x = 200;
for (var i:uint = 1; i <= 2; i++)
{
tempNumber += this["test" + i].x;
}
trace("tempNumber: " + tempNumber);
}
If i run the code like this, the line this["test" + i] returns a variable of the class. I need the local variable, the variable of the function.

Answer 1

Your loop on first step access plate0 this will cause not found error, if plate0 is not explicitly defined as class member variable or if class is not defined as dynamic. Same thing will happen for plate3, plate4, plate5... in case LAYER_PLATES.numChildren is more than 3.
EDIT:
Thanks to #Smolniy he corrected my answer plate0 is never accessed because cont is incremented before first access. So as he mentioned problem should be on plate3

Answer 2

You don't get the local variable with [] notation. your case has many solutions. You can use dictionary, or getChildAt() function:
function testFunction():void
{
var dict = new Dictionary(true);
var test1:Sprite = new Sprite();
var test2:Sprite = new Sprite();
var tempNumber:Number = 0;
addChild(test1);
dict[test1] = test1.x = 100;
addChild(test2);
dict[test2] = test2.x = 200;
for (var s:* in dict)
{
tempNumber += s.x;
//or tempNumber += dict[s];
}
trace("tempNumber: " + tempNumber);
};