# Check Instance names on Stage

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/check-instance-names-on-stage/213878>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [January 23, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/check-instance-names-on-stage/213878 "2007-01-23T23:35:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![octopus](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/octopus/32/3176_2.png) [@octopus](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/octopus)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/check-instance-names-on-stage/213878/1 "2007-01-23T23:35:44Z")

</div>

I need to determine whether there are instances on stage with a certain name.

I have multiple movie clips, some of which have instance names cdata1 … cdata10

I am trying to simply trace those elements, I have the following code:

page1\_next.onRelease = function(){  
var i:Number = 0;  
for(i in this.\_parent){  
if(this.\_parent\* == this.\_parent[“cdata”+i]){  
trace(this.\_parent\*);  
}  
}

If I remove the if statement and instead trace(this.\_parent\*); I get all the elements of the mc. But if I add the if statement to search for instances named cdatax I get nothing. Any ideas?