How do I get from an instance of a class to a Class object in ActionScript 3?

Question

How do you get an instance of the actionscript class Class from an instance of that class?

In Python, this would be x.__class__; in Java, x.getClass();.

I'm aware that certain terrible hacks exist to do this, but I'm looking for a built-in language facility, or at least a library routine built on something reliable.

Answer 1

Any reason you couldn't do this?

var s:Sprite = new flash.display.Sprite();

var className:String = flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName( s );
var myClass:Class = flash.utils.getDefinitionByName( className ) as Class;

trace(className ); // flash.display::Sprite
trace(myClass); // [class Sprite]

var s2 = new myClass();
trace(s2); // [object Sprite]

I don't know a way to avoid round-tripping through a String, but it should work well enough.

Answer 2

You can get it through the 'constructor' property of the base Object class. i.e.:

var myClass:Class = Object(myObj).constructor;

Answer 3

Thanks fenomas. This is the exact thing I was looking for.

I have a class 'Child' that extends from 'Parent'. I need to access Child's static properties from the parent.

I passed myClass when I called the super(); method in the 'Child' class.

If there is a better way to do please let me know.