Flex Associative Arrays

In this example I will be showing the use of associative array to change the content of a DataGrid control. Associative arrays work just like regular arrays except they use an Object (normally a string) as their index. For example, inventory['price'] = 12.99. I will be creating an associative array of ArrayCollections. Each of these ArrayCollections will be used to populate a DataGrid.

First let's create the ComboBox and the DataGrid controls:

dataProvider="{categories}" change="changeCBHandler()"> dataProvider="{searchList}">

Now let's look at the code used in these examples. Comments are provided throughout the code.

import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;//Array for the ComboBox control
[Bindable]
private var categories:ArrayCollection =new ArrayCollection(["Search", "News"]);
//Array collections to be placed in the Associative Array[Bindable]private var searchList:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection([{name:'Yahoo',url:'http://yahoo.com'},{name:'Google',url:'http://google.com'},{name:'Ask', url:'http://ask.com'}]);[Bindable]private var newsList:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection([{name:'CNN', url:'http://cnn.com'},{name:'Yahoo News', url:'http://news.yahoo.com'},{name:'CNet', url:'http://cnet.com'}]);//Associative Array[Bindable]private var allLists:Array = new Array();//Intialization of the Associative array//to be called on applicationComplete eventprivate function loadAllLists():void { allLists['Search'] = searchList;allLists['News'] = newsList;}//Event handler for the change eventprivate function changeCBHandler():void {var category:String = cbCategory.selectedLabel;dgSites.dataProvider = allLists[category]; }]]>Here is the complete application. Right click to see the complete source code.