# Reaching a MovieClip from a String Path

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/reaching-a-movieclip-from-a-string-path/267907
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [August 7, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/reaching-a-movieclip-from-a-string-path/267907 "2008-08-07T04:16:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Ayman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Ayman](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Ayman)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/reaching-a-movieclip-from-a-string-path/267907/1 "2008-08-07T04:16:41Z")

</div>

Hello everyone

I have the path to a movieclip, in a string format. For example:

var pathString:String = “container.boxMC.ball”

I want to be able to reach that movieclip type (ball). I tried using something like getDefinitionByName(pathString), but gives me the error:

Variable ball is not defined.

Any ideas?