Delete MC loaded in runtime

Question

I have loaded a library's MovieClip onto the stage with this code:

addChildAt(MC_1, 0);

In this MovieClip I have some MovieClips used as buttons. When I press on one of this button it changes color (goto frame2).

After that, I removed MC_1 from stage like so:

removeChildAt(0);

and loaded another MovieClip similar to the MC_1 like so:

addChildAt(MC_2, 0);

The problem is that, if I load another MC_1 , the last button pressed still remains colored.

How do I unload it completely from the memory?

Answer 1

Apparently you are not loading another MC_1 , you are adding the same instance that's referenced by MC_1 . "Loading" a movie clip is not just adding, it's also instantiating , to do this, you call MC_1 = new Something(); . So, in order to add a completely new movie clip that has a prototype in the library, you have to re-instantiate the variable you use by placing MC_1 = new Something() where Something is the name of the movie clip in the library.

You can also make a different approach: you give the prototype a function that'll react on the Event.REMOVED_FROM_STAGE event, which will make all the buttons in the MC to change their states to default. Like this:

public class Something extends MovieClip {
    // any other functionality is here
    public function Something() {
        // ...
        addEventListener(Event.REMOVED_FROM_STAGE,resetMC);
    }
    private function resetMC(e:Event):void {
        button_1.gotoAndStop(1); // make sure to place proper name of buttons
        ... // place one gotoAndStop() call per button you want to switch back
    }
}

Then, as soon as you do removeChild(MC_1) , this code kicks in, making all of the MC_1 's buttons (well, all that are referenced in the resetMC() function) to show the corresponding frame (here, button_1 will show first frame). This approach is generally better, because you don't make a new instance to appear in memory, thus you retain the control of the present MC_1 .