# \[F5\] Referencing mcs by variable
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/f5-referencing-mcs-by-variable/11912
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [January 23, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/f5-referencing-mcs-by-variable/11912 "2003-01-23T20:53:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Legoman](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Legoman)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/f5-referencing-mcs-by-variable/11912/1 "2003-01-23T20:53:51Z")
Is it possible to call an instance of a movieclip by a variable name?
Say I have several movie-clips on the main timeline and a variable named “disabled”. I want to click a button and have be able to tell “disabled” to goto frame 2, where disabled will contain the name of the movie-clip. can I do this?
thanks
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/f5-referencing-mcs-by-variable/11912/2 "2003-01-23T22:15:43Z")
Here… I played a bit with the idea but I didn’t quite get it working yet. I think this is what you were trying to do with passing the clip name to a variable and letting the button use that variable to “disable” it. Sorry I didn’t have time to finish it, but I think it’s a starting point.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/f5-referencing-mcs-by-variable/11912/3 "2003-01-24T15:44:29Z")
thanks for replying.
Unfortunatly I couldn’t open your .fla (I’m on Flash 5). would you mind telling me how you were going about it?
I also have a start made on the problem but can’t figure out how to make it actually work!
If anyone else has any input too then your help would be very welcome.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/f5-referencing-mcs-by-variable/11912/4 "2003-01-26T06:14:17Z")
_bump_
Can anyone help me on this one??