# Remove child = null before setting it to null?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/remove-child-null-before-setting-it-to-null/293387>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [July 28, 2009, 10:31am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/remove-child-null-before-setting-it-to-null/293387 "2009-07-28T10:31:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![regbolD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@regbolD](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/regbolD)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 10:31am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/remove-child-null-before-setting-it-to-null/293387/1 "2009-07-28T10:31:55Z")

</div>

sometimes I remove child and trace it afterwards and it outputs null although I havent yet set it to null, why is that?  
and do I need to set it to null also in that case?

```auto
trace(holderArr[loadedThumbs].getChildByName("photo_bg"));
//[object MovieClip]
holderArr[loadedThumbs].removeChild(holderArr[loadedThumbs].getChildByName("photo_bg"));
trace(holderArr[loadedThumbs].getChildByName("photo_bg"));
//null
holderArr[loadedThumbs].photo_bg = null;
//trace(holderArr[loadedThumbs].getChildByName("photo_bg"));
//null

```