Data Types

ActionScript 3.0 (in "strict mode") and Haxe both use strict data types. This allows the compiler to make certain assumptions on how data will be used and accessed, improving performance, and usually improving how easy it is to write and maintain the code as well.

Each language is somewhat different in the core data types they support, but understanding one should make it simple to learn the other.

Primitives

ActionScript 3.0 has the following primitive value data types:

• String

  A text value, such as a name or a written message

• Number

  Any numeric value (integer or floating point)

• int

  An integer numeric value (a whole/round number). This can be positive or negative

• uint

  An unsigned integer numeric value. This is similar to int, but it is always positive

• Boolean

  A true or false value

Haxe has the following primitive value data types:

• String

  A text value, such as a name or a written message

• Float

  Any numeric value (integer or floating point)

• Int

  An integer numeric value (a whole/round number). This can be positive or negative

• Bool

  A true or false value

Haxe has a UInt abstract type. Though it is not a primitive data type, it can be used to interpret an Int as an unsigned value. Int is most commonly used in Haxe projects, but UInt is available when desired.

Complex Values

As a virtual machine, ActionScript defines a set of data types that store complex values. These include Object, Array, Date, Error, Function, RegExp, XML and XMLList.

The Haxe standard library includes similar data types, such as Dynamic, Array, Date, EReg and Xml. Most of the core data types are composed out of Haxe language features such as classes, enums, abstracts and externs.

In ActionScript 3.0, every value (whether primitive or complex) is an Object. In Haxe, the Dynamic type can be used to describe any type.

In ActionScript 3.0 and Haxe, you can define an array using array literal syntax, or by using an array constructor.

var list = [ 1, 2, 3 ];
var list2 = new Array<Int> ();

The ActionScript core Array type is dynamic. This means that the Array type will allow any kind of value in the same object:

var list:Array = [ 1, "2", false ];

For better performance, and more nuanced control over code, Haxe arrays are statically typed, which means that it accepts only values of one type by default, unless it is a dynamic array.

var mixed:Array<Dynamic> = [ 1, "2", false ];
var integers:Array<Int> = [ 1, 2, 3];

Haxe does not include a core Error type, but allows errors to be thrown of any type

if (error) {

    throw "Something bad happened!";

}