# External AS - Why/How?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-as-why-how/59067>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [July 28, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-as-why-how/59067 "2004-07-28T05:15:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ratbaggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ratbaggy](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/ratbaggy)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-as-why-how/59067/1 "2004-07-28T05:15:36Z")

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perhaps someone could explain how and why to use external actionscript files (\*.as) or is it not necessary?

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 7:25am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-as-why-how/59067/2 "2004-07-28T07:25:17Z")

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```auto

#include "fileName.as"

```

Say you’re writing something with a lot of scripting, you might want to include different AS files to keep it more organized…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 8:10am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-as-why-how/59067/3 "2004-07-28T08:10:11Z")

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thanks for the reply macneilslt

so does that become global or do you have to #include them wherever you need them and if so does it have to be a relative path?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-as-why-how/59067/4 "2004-07-28T15:11:52Z")

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something to keep in mind is that if you are perhaps distributing the final program on disk, since you have to include all those files and they are just regular text files, you could potentially give away all your hard-worked code to anyone.

That right there might be a good reason to keep stuff internal.