References classes?

Question

what's the correct way to reference a class, in this case from the same package. the code below shows class "Two" attempting to trace the value of a variable in class "One". no success. trace returns undefined.

//Class One
package
{
import flash.display.Sprite;

public class One extends Sprite
     {
     public var myString:String = "My String";

     public function One()
           {
           new Two();
           }
     }
}


//Class TWO
package
{
public class Two
     {
     private var oneClass:Class = One; // <- is that right?

     public function Two()
           {
           trace(oneClass.myString);
           }
     }
}

Answer 1

myString in class One is not static. So it doesn't belong to the class, but to the instances. That's why your code doesn't work. Try with :

static public var myString:String = "My String";

Answer 2

There is an error in trace(oneClass.myString); because myString isn't static. But besides that, you can assign One to oneClass

A reference of type Class doesn't have any property of the class or the object, is not an instance is just a reference to the constructor of that class. i.e:

public class One {
    static public var classValue = "Hello";
    public var instanceValue = "World!";
}

public class Two {
    public function Two() {
        trace( One.classValue );                 // this traces: Hello
        trace( One.instanceValue );              // this throws an Error
        var classReference:Class = One;
        trace( classReference.classValue );      // this throws an Error
        trace( classReference.instanceValue );   // this throws an Error
        var objectReference:One = new classReference();
        trace( objectReference.classValue );     // this throws an Error
        trace( objectReference.instanceValue);   // this traces: World!
    }
}

The class properties (static ones) only can be acceded from the Class directly (like One.classValue) not from a Class reference and instance properties (NOT static ones) can only be acceded from objects of that class (like new One().instanceValue)