E4X: Use string as attribute name in expression?

Question

I have a function that has this line:

var returnString:String = items[0].@month;

@month is an attibute on an XML node like so:

<xmlnode month="JAN"/>

OK but I need to abstract the attribute name so I can pass a string to the function and get the contents of the attribute with the name matching the string I passed. So for example If I call the function like this function("stone") it returns items[0].@stone. I hope this is clear.

Does anyone know how to do what I am after?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You'll want to use attribute('stone') rather than @stone, its the same thing, @stone is just a shorthand way of writing it.

Answer 2

You can write this as:

var attrName:String = "month";
return items[0].@[ attrName ];

Answer 3

not only that, but if you ever want to assign a value to an attribute using a variable for the attribute name, you can do this (although it is not documented) like so:

  public function setAttr(obj:XML, attrName:String, value:String):void{
     obj.@[attrName] = value;
  }