Passing variables from the page

programming flash
1

I’ve been writing movies in AS2 that have variables passed to them via the src parameter of the page code, e.g.

src="/Flash/theMovie.swf?value=1"

then in the AS I don’t need to define ‘val’, I can use it straight away.

However, in AS3 - at least, as I understand it - it seems that I can’t drop ‘val’ into the code without defining it, as it throws "“1120: Access of undefined property val”. So, if I add a line of code

public var val:Number;

…or somesuch, will this be enough to ensure ‘val’ is useable once it comes through from the page?

Apologies for the unresearched nature of this query; not something I usually like to do, but one or two other things are more pressing

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.