# Mx - Drawing API **URL:** \ **Category:** flash\ **Created:** [August 6, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808 "2003-08-06T20:15:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grandsp5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@grandsp5](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/grandsp5)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/1 "2003-08-06T20:15:19Z")
I got this code for drawing polyhedrons with the drawing API from a tutorial but I don’t understand what everthing does. I get the first 5 lines but then it loses me. Can someone break it down line by line? The biggest thing I dont get is how it acceses the position in the array. [AS] \_root.createEmptyMovieClip(“holder”,1); //creates clip holder.lineStyle(1,0,100);//defines line style width=30;//sets half the width of the square myPoints=[[50-width,50-width],[50+width,50-width],[50+width,50+width],[50-width,50+width],[50-width,50-width]]; //array with the 5 points needed to define the square holder.moveTo(this.myPoints[0][0],this.myPoints[0][1]); //moves it to the starting point for (var j=1;j \< myPoints.length;j++) holder.lineTo(this.myPoints[j][0],this.myPoints[j][1]); //here i am lost [/AS] ---
**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:** [August 6, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/2 "2003-08-06T20:27:06Z")
Which part exactly don’t you understand? The for loop or the multidimensional arrays (this.myPoints[j][0]), or both? ---
**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:** [August 6, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/3 "2003-08-06T20:33:08Z")
array. I understand exactly what the for loop does. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/4 "2003-08-06T20:44:49Z")
Ok, the myPoints array contains 5 items. But if you look carefully, those 5 items are actually arrays that contain 2 items ([] signifies an array). So each item in the myPoints array is actually another array. Arrays start counting from 0, so those sub arrays are basically like… [position0, position1] So now for the script… [As]this.myPoints[j][0][/AS] You know this.myPoints is the main array the contains the points so this.myPoints[j] gets the position of the item in the main array, and the [0] gets the position of the item at position0 in the subArray (array within the myPoints item array). Naturally to get the 2nd position you would change [0] to [1] (which is in the script as well). So basically [AS]holder.lineTo(this.myPoints[j][0],this.myPoints[j][1]);[/AS] lineTo works like this… lineTo(x,y), so basically the script gets the position in the this.myPoints[j][0] array for the x position and the position in the this.myPoints[j][1]) array for the y position and then it draws a line there. Does that help any? ---
**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:** [August 6, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/5 "2003-08-06T21:39:07Z")
Oh yeah. See I am used to c++ where [] accesses a position in an array, not creates a new one. I thought it was trying to call 2 positions out of a 1 demensional array. I get it now. Thanks ---
**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:** [August 6, 2003, 9:41pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/6 "2003-08-06T21:41:30Z")
Yeah, in Flash [] creates an array and arrayName[] accesses a position in an array. And in the case of multidimensional arrayes it would be arrayName[][] or even arrayName[][][] so on and so forth 🙂 Glad to help clear things up =) ---
**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:** [August 6, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/7 "2003-08-06T21:43:53Z")
Yup. Thanks a bunch. On a totally unrelated note, does recursion work in Flash? ---
**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:** [August 6, 2003, 9:46pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/8 "2003-08-06T21:46:32Z")
Yes, I believe so. I don’t really work with recursive math in Flash though so i’m not entirely sure if/how it works. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/mx-drawing-api/27808/9 "2003-08-06T21:52:49Z")
ok. 🙂 thanks