Unloading swfs loaded with Loader::load() - actionscript-3

Question

I'm using Loader::load() successfully to load swfs into my main swf and then I add them as a child of a Sprite. When other events occur I want to remove the swfs as needed. I have looked at unload() and at removeChildAt() without success.
I only added the addChild() call to try to pin down the loaded instance so I could remove it. The loading works fine without the addChild();
I have also tried publishing to player v.10 and using myLoader.unloadAndStop(); but this has no effect either;
The following demo code shows my problem. I see one child added and one removed but intro.swf is still playing away.
import flash.display.Loader;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.display.LoaderInfo;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
var myLoader:Loader = new Loader();
var holderMC:Sprite = new Sprite();
var myRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest('intro.swf');
myLoader.load(myRequest);
holderMC.addChild(myLoader);
trace("initial:"+holderMC.numChildren); // traces initial:1
while(holderMC.numChildren > 0) {
holderMC.removeChildAt(0);
trace("now there are:"+holderMC.numChildren); // traces now there are :0
}
myLoader.unload();
// Edit- also tried:
myLoader.unloadAndStop();
myLoader = null;
Any thoughts?

Answer 1

You definitely have something else going on here. First, how are you seeing the "intro.swf"? You are creating holderMC, and adding the loaded swf as a child, but when are you adding holderMC to the display list?
The proper way to remove a movie from the view would be:
holderMC.removeChild(myLoader);
In order to let the content of holderMC to be flagged for garbage collection you need to set it to null. So,
holderMC.removeChild(myLoader);
myLoader.unload(); // this will set the content (the movie itself) to null.
myLoader = null; // npw the loader can be garbage collected too
If you are doing a removeChild and it is still showing, then you will need to post more code to show where the problem really is.