# Hierarchy of instances

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/hierarchy-of-instances/320441
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [March 23, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/hierarchy-of-instances/320441 "2011-03-23T15:06:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![silverneo188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@silverneo188](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/silverneo188)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/hierarchy-of-instances/320441/1 "2011-03-23T15:06:11Z")

</div>

I was wondering, sometimes i get confused from which point in a movieclip to indentify another movie clip. I was wondering if this would work

lets say i have a series of movieclips with these instances in each other  
mc being the top most movieclip

mc\>mc1\>mc2\>mc3\>mc4

now lets say my code is in mc4 and i want to indentify mc1. Could i do this?

```auto

_root.mc.mc1

```

I have no idea how to use the “parent” reference tag from that deep within a movie clip. Is “\_root” a good method to use? Will it work? even though its being stated from with that movieclip?