What is the most efficient way to store and parse data in AS3?

Question

What way of reading and storing data is fastest for AS3. For debugging right now it is just reading the raw XML, but I suspect it would be faster if I made them into nested arrays.

Would parsing the XML into nested arrays to be read later be the most efficient method?, or is there a better way to read lots of data?

Answer 1

You could store the data in an Object the first time you parse the XML making it a lot easier/faster to retrieve a set of properties whenever you need them afterwards.

This Object can be viewed as a multidimensional Array if you will.

Answer 2

Converting into an object may also be advantageous when used in conjunction with the Array.sortOn method. You may also consider using JSON as the transport format; it would remove the overhead of parsing and converting XML.

Answer 3

Well pasring an xml into Array has various advantage as mentioned in above comments.. How you will get Nested Array for the sample XML

<mynode4    swf="node4.swf" htmlpage="">
<subheading1    swf="L4_s1.swf"     htmlpage="L4_1.htm">Work Hard</subheading1>
<subheading2    swf="L4_s2.swf"     htmlpage="L4_2.htm">karachi</subheading2> 
<subheading3    swf="L4_s3.swf"     htmlpage="L4_3.htm">Newyork City.</subheading3> 
</mynode4>      
<mynode5 swf="five.swf" htmlpage="">Here is the Test for node 5</mynode5>
<mynode6  swf="six.swf" htmlpage="">Last node accessed</mynode6>

var uLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader() uLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,onXMLLoaded) uLoader.load(new URLRequest("xmldata.xml"))

public function onXMLLoaded(event:Event):void {

    var loader:URLLoader = URLLoader(event.target);
    var root1:XML = new XML(loader.data);
    var showChilds:XMLList = root1.children();
    var nodes_names2            :Array  =   new Array();
    var nodes_swf2              :Array  =   new Array();
    var nodes_values2           :Array  =   new Array();
    var nodes_pages2            :Array  =   new Array();


    var  take_items:Array   =   recursiveXML(showChilds,nodes_names2,nodes_swf2,nodes_values2,nodes_pages2,0);
    this.nodes_names2       =   take_items[0];
    this.nodes_swf2         =   take_items[1];
    this.nodes_values2      =   take_items[2];
    this.nodes_pages2       =   take_items[3];

    trace( nodes_names2);
    trace( nodes_swf2);
    trace( nodes_values2);
    trace( nodes_pages2);

}

public function recursiveXML(showChilds:XMLList,nodes_names:Array,nodes_swf:Array,nodes_values:Array,nodes_pages:Array, count:int):Array {

        for each (var eachChild:XML in showChilds) 
        {
            if(eachChild.hasComplexContent())
            {
                nodes_names[count]          =   new Array((eachChild.children().length()))
                nodes_swf[count]            =   new Array((eachChild.children().length()))
                nodes_values[count]         =   new Array((eachChild.children().length()))
                nodes_pages[count]          =   new Array((eachChild.children().length()))

                nodes_names[count][0]       =   eachChild.name()
                nodes_swf[count][0]         =   eachChild.attribute("swf");
                nodes_values[count][0]      =   "";
                nodes_pages[count][0]       =   "";
                var showChilds:XMLList      =   eachChild.children();
                var take_items:Array        =   recursiveXML(showChilds,nodes_names[count],nodes_swf[count],nodes_values[count],nodes_pages[count] , 1);
                nodes_names[count]          =   take_items[0];
                nodes_swf[count]            =   take_items[1];
                nodes_values[count]         =   take_items[2];
                nodes_pages[count]          =   take_items[3];
                count++;
            }
            else
            {
                nodes_names[count]          =   eachChild.name();   
                nodes_swf[count]            =   eachChild.attribute("swf");
                nodes_pages[count]          =   eachChild.attribute("htmlpage");    
                nodes_values[count]         =   eachChild.text();   
                count++;
            }
        }
            var _items:Array    = new Array( nodes_names, nodes_swf,nodes_values,nodes_pages);
            return _items;
    }