# Checking if a symbol exists in the library

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/checking-if-a-symbol-exists-in-the-library/235604>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [August 13, 2007, 11:21am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/checking-if-a-symbol-exists-in-the-library/235604 "2007-08-13T11:21:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![NickZA](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/nickza/32/3452_2.png) [@NickZA](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/NickZA)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 11:21am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/checking-if-a-symbol-exists-in-the-library/235604/1 "2007-08-13T11:21:05Z")

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Hi

My situation is thus: I have an XML file with entries, each of which contains a handle (linkage ID) to the movie clip that represents that entry onstage.

So I dynamically load these symbols in from the library accordingly. Only problem is, I need to be able to count how many of those entries are valid, that is, how many of the XML entries have handles that actually _do_ _correctly_ correspond to the names of the symbols in the library.

So right now in order to count the entries I am using the value of how many entries were in the XML file but this is wrong, I need a value of how many entries in the XML _correspond correctly to a library symbol._

As it stands now, if all the names in the XML file match those in the .fla, all is good. Otherwise, issues. The thing is, I want this setup to be robust so the program takes responsibility and resolves issues if there are errors in the XML.

Now, the only way I can see to fixing this simply, is if there is a way to check if a symbol exists in the library – without actually trying to load it.

That way I can count just those symbols from the XML file that also do exist in the library.

TIA,

-Nick