> Actually, I think "item[myComboBox.selectedItem.data]" should > actually work just fine
That's it! Don't know why I didn't see that before. Thanks for your help. -Peter > Ed > > Peter Demling wrote: > > > > > > (This is a fundamental question, and it' challenging to find a clear > > way to ask it): > > > > Let's say I have an ArrayCollection data source with 50 fields (which > > I do), and my user selects the name of one of these fields (let's say > > "PRODUCT") with myComboBox, so that it's now in > > "myComboBox.selectedItem.data". > > > > How can I make actionScript use this value dynamically, so that > > instead of coding a switch with 50 cases for each property like so: > > > > switch(myComboBox.selectedItem.data){ > > case "PRODUCT": > > return item.PRODUCT; > > break; > > case "FIELD2": > > return item.FIELD2; > > break; > > case "FIELD3": > > return item.FIELD3; > > break; > > ... > > } > > > > ? Can I can instead do something like > > "item.[myComboBox.selectedItem.data]"? Do you know what I mean? > > Something like > > "item.getValueofNamedProperty(myComboBox.selectedItem.data);". > > > > [Without complicating the question, I ask because this would greatly > > simplify a complex charting component I'm developing, where the user > > should be able to summarize the underlying data based on any of the > > fields; so I need to know the selected property for the filter > > function, the toolTip, the sort function, etc. Right now I'm only > > supporting 3 properties, since I'm relying on nested switch statements > > like the one above]. > > > > Hopefully I'm just missing a really basic piece of actionScript > > syntax. Many thanks for any suggestions! > > > > -Peter Demling > > Lexington, MA > > > > >