The most basic features of each language are creating instances of classes and setting values.

  • With the set assignment statement, it is possible to create objects of base types like String, Integer, Float, Boolean, and DateTime
  • whereas objects of complex types need to be instantiated (created) first with the create statement - that is creating an instance of the corresponding class. Once the instance of the class (the object) has been created, it can store data in its attributes.

Creating Base Types with the set Assignment Statement

The following examples shows how to use the set assignment statement to create base type objects.

Syntax
set anObject = aValue;
SemanticsAssigns a value to anObject.
SubstitutablesanObject Can be an object node or an attribute, or an association end.
aValue Can be a literal, a object node of base type, or an action script operation or expression returning a base type.
Examples
set aString = "Hello World!"; 
set anInteger = 12345; 
set currentDate = currentDateTime();

The example in the figure below shows how to create base type objects like strings, integers, etc. Base type objects need not to be instantiated, they are created by using the set assignment statement to directly assign a value to the variable.
All variables are drawn as object nodes with all objects being of base type.

Creating Arrays by Appending Items

Creating Objects of Complex Type

The following example shows how to use the create statement to create objects of complex type.

Scalar base type objects are never created using the create statement (see Creating Base Types with the set Assignment Statement above).

Syntax
 create anObject;
SemanticsCreates an object of complex type. The object reference is stored in anObject. Initial values defined on the class attributes will be set.
SubstitutablesanObjectCan be any valid object name. 
Examples
 create simpleObject;

In the following cases, objects need to be created with the create statement:

  • You want to explicitly create an instance of a class.
  • Result objects of an iteration over an action script need to be created.

In the following cases, the create statement is not necessary:

  • Adapters may create objects of any type. Those objects are implicitly created by the adapter and do not need to be created explicitly, e.g. the result set of an SQL query.

  • When having related classes, the instantiation of intermediate objects is not mandatory.
    In the example below, ClassA has an attribute b, which is of type ClassB (see association). ClassB in turn has a string attribute named aString.

    When creating an instance of the top-level class ClassA, the lower classes are instantiated implicitly, so the action script below would be fine.

    create objectOfClassA;
set objectOfClassA.b.aString ="Hello World!";

Basics of the Action Script Language: