actionscript arrays merge - actionscript-3

Question

I posted my problem a few hours ago, but I think I figured out how to ask my question in a more comprehensible way.
This is my code:
// 1. Intro
var introPL1:Array = ["intro1","intro2","intro3","intro4"];
var introPL2:Array = ["intro5","intro6","intro7","intro8","intro9"];
var introPL3:Array = ["intro10","intro11"];
var introPL4:Array = ["intro12","intro13"];
var allIntro:Array = [introPL1,introPL2,introPL3,introPL4];
// 2. Clothes
var clothesPL1:Array = ["clothes1","clothes2","clothes3","clothes4","clothes5"];
var clothesPL2:Array = ["clothes6","clothes7","clothes8"];
var clothesPL3:Array = ["clothes9","clothes10"];
var clothesPL4:Array = ["clothes11","clothes12","clothes13"];
var allClothes:Array = [clothesPL1,clothesPL2,clothesPL3,clothesPL4];
// 3. Colored Numbers
var colNumPL1:Array = ["colNum1","colNum2","colNum3","colNum4","colNum5"];
var colNumPL2:Array = ["colNum6","colNum7","colNum8"];
var colNumPL3:Array = ["colNum9","colNum10"];
var colNumPL4:Array = ["colNum11","colNum12","colNum13"];
var allColNum:Array = [colNumPL1,colNumPL2,colNumPL3,colNumPL4];
var allStuff:Array;
allStuff = allIntro.concat(allClothes, allColNum);
trace(allStuff[4]);
When I trace allStuff[4] it displays "clothes1,clothes2,clothes3,clothes4,clothes5".
The thing is, I would like all the stuff to be in the allStuff array (without sub-arrays) and when I trace allStuff[4], I would like it to display "intro5" (the fifth item in the huge allStuff array).

Answer 1

the function you want to use then is concat
here's the example from adobe
var numbers:Array = new Array(1, 2, 3);
var letters:Array = new Array("a", "b", "c");
var numbersAndLetters:Array = numbers.concat(letters);
var lettersAndNumbers:Array = letters.concat(numbers);
trace(numbers); // 1,2,3
trace(letters); // a,b,c
trace(numbersAndLetters); // 1,2,3,a,b,c
trace(lettersAndNumbers); // a,b,c,1,2,3
it's pretty straight forward:
allStuff= allStuff.concat(introPL1,introPL2,introPL3,introPL4,clothesPL1,clothesPL2,clothesPL3,clothesPL4,colNumPL1,colNumPL2,colNumPL3,colNumPL4);
you could also do a
allStuff = []
for each(var $string:String in $arr){
allStuff.push($string)
}
for each array, or make it into a function

Answer 2

Okay, once you have declared your arrays like so, you need an additional operation to flatten your arrays allClothes and so on. Do like this:
function flatten(a:Array):Array {
// returns an array that contains all the elements
// of parameter as a single array
var b:Array=[];
for (var i:int=0;i<a.length;i++) {
if (a[i] is Array) b=b.concat(flatten(a[i]));
else b.push(a[i]);
}
return b;
}
What does it do: The function makes an empty array first, then checks the parameter member by member, if the i'th member is an Array, it calls itself with that member as a parameter, and adds the result to its temporary array, otherwise it's just pushing next member of a into the temporary array. So, to make your allIntro a flat array, you call allIntro=flatten(allIntro) after declaring it as you did. The same for other arrays.