AS3 Gotcha #1: “autoSize” for Dynamic Text Fields Is No Longer the Friend You Thought It Was

(To be clear: it’s still a friend. It just has a new attitude.)

So, apparently the “autoSize” parameter for dynamic textfields is no longer a boolean!

This caught me off guard when I was doing what I usually do when I run out of space in a dynamic text field:

label_txt.autoSize = true;

But if you try to do this in AS3, you’ll get an error #1067 (a compiler error to be specific), which says:

“Implicit coercion of a value of type Boolean to an unrelated type String.”

...which in designer-speak means You Obviously Don’t Know What the Hell You’re Doing, So Why Don’t You Scoot Your Tuckus On Over to the AS3 Language Reference, Dufus.

Well, then.

Cute-siness aside, what it actually says is that ”autoSize” is a String, so, why you tryin’ to force a Boolean value (true or false) onto it and violate is own nature, fool?

So after some hunting in the handy dandy AS3 Language Reference

The good news is now in ActionScript 3.0, you have four choices (count ‘em, four!) instead of just two before, and they basically mean what you think they mean:

label_txt.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.NONE — The default. No resizing.

label_txt.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT — Will automatically resize the textfield and left-align the text.

label_txt.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.CENTER — Will automatically resize the textfield and center the text.

label_txt.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.RIGHT — Will automatically resize the textfield and right-align the text.

And there you have it. I’ll be posting more AS3 Gotchas as I come across them, as a public service to all my fellow Flash designers and developers making the proverbial journey into ActionScript 3.0 from its previous iterations. In theory, the transition is easy, but I have definitely found that it’s the niggly-wiggly things like this that getcha and can drive you crazy to the point of...that’s right...pissing you off.

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You’re currently reading “AS3 Gotcha #1: “autoSize” for Dynamic Text Fields Is No Longer the Friend You Thought It Was,” an entry on ActionScript for the Pissed-Off Designer

Published:: 11.30.08 / 9pm

Category:: AS3 Gotchas

Previous:: Fundamentals of Programming, part 1

Next:: AS3 Gotcha #2: MovieClip paths using root/_root and parent/_parent

About ActionScript for the Pissed-Off Designer

If you never have written a single letter of ActionScript, or are currently getting by with cutting and pasting other people's code without a full understanding what exactly you're doing, then this is for you. Specifically, this is for designers already familiar with the Flash the Application (its interface and its tools) but not necessarily with ActionScript the Language.

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Eric 03.16.2009 / 11am

thank you!

it was really pissing me off, and now it works!

Tamika 03.21.2009 / 8am

This is a very interesting website, I have added it in my favourites. Keep up the good work.
I am from Austria and learning to speak English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Book your flights to new york, ny jfk visit expedia.”

Waiting for a reply :(, Tamika.

erik 04.13.2009 / 6pm

@ tamika, you have the understanding correct, but that would not be considered a sentence, now the sentence you used to ask abut the sentence is all kinds of f’d up, good luck, your english can be crap and people will still love you.

@ this blog, my lord man, I feel this way so often, I’m not a programmer getting more and more lost in a programmers world, trying to make all their shit sparkle (clean as sparkle is really the worst design aesthetic)

cheers

and while I still have the page open:
import flash.text.TextFieldAutoSize;)

moly 04.19.2009 / 4pm

@Eric, @Tamika, and @erik — Yay! I’m very glad that this post has been helpful for you. It makes me feel like another mission has been accomplished.

@Tamika, It seems like you’re writing ad copy for the web. I think what you’re trying to say is something more along the lines of: “Book your flights to NYC. Visit Expedia.”

Leo 04.20.2009 / 12pm

Thanks for this post! very helpful specifically and a nice overall blog, but I think that Tamika sounds like an ad bot.

The Pissed One 04.26.2009 / 4pm

Ha, yes, Leo, thanks for pointing that out. I couldn’t really tell but I guess I wanted to extend a friendly gesture anyway…even if it turns out it was a bot. Thanks for stopping by!

Ian Shea 04.01.2010 / 12pm

I know this is an old post, but thanks for it anyways. Helped me out right away.

Just as a side note too…

You don’t have to import the class if you just pass the string instead of the TextfieldAutoSize constant....

So for instance you can use either:

import flash.text.TextFieldAutoSize;

your_neat_textfield.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;

*or*

your_neat_textfield.autoSize = “left”;

Happy flashing!

ActionScript for the Pissed-Off Designer

AS3 Gotcha #1: “autoSize” for Dynamic Text Fields Is No Longer the Friend You Thought It Was

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