Eliminating repeat calls from a list

[WickedSense webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hi,
I am a student working on a childrens game. The concept is a spelling bee. A picture pops up, a voice speaks the word, and there is a field to input the text to spell the word. I have 50 words right now, in a list that associates the word, picture and sound. then I have a random number -random(50)- generated to pull a random item out of the list, each level of the spelling bee is only 10 questions long. I want to eliminate the chance of the same item being pulled from the list during play.

Here is my current script to generate the word picture and sound. (I shortened the database to make it easier to read, but there are 50 items in the list, each item containing the three elements.)



on displayquestion
pDatabase = [["acorn", "acornpic", "acornsound"],["apple", "applepic", "applesound"],["bag", "bagpic", "bagsound"],["ball", "ballpic", "ballsound"]]
pVariable = random(50)
pSet = pDatabase[integer(pVariable)]
sprite(4).member = pSet[2]
sprite(4).locH = 320
sprite(4).locV = 260
sprite(4).visible = true
pCorrectAnswer = pSet[1]
end

on checkquestion
if member("field").text = pCorrectAnswer then
pCorrect = pCorrect + 1
pQuestionnum = pQuestionnum + 1
member("field").text = ""
updatescore
else if member("field").text <> pCorrectAnswer then
pincorrect = pincorrect + 1
pQuestionnum = pQuestionnum + 1
member("field").text = ""
updatescore
end if
gPress = false
displayquestion
end

Again, I want to eliminate the chance of the same item being called from the list twice. Any help is greatly appreciated! THANKS!

Brad

[Gabriel]

delete the item after you use it

and so, instead of random 50 you should
call random in to the remaining questions..

pVariable should be
pVariable = random( pDatabase.count() )

and at the end of the displayquestion
pDatabase.deleteAt( pVariable )

... just noticed ..
you should not initialize the list in the same handler that you use for
selecting and deleting (for obvious reasons.... )
so on startmovie should be a betterPlace ... or on beginsprite if you are
using a behaviour to control the questions..


hope this helps

gabriel

[WickedSense webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Wow! Great, the advice worked out, no more duplicates!
Also, since there are three levels, and each level is scripted at a seperate marker (different locations in other words) I decided to establish my 3 databases like this within a movie script.

global gDatabase1, gDatabase2, gDatabase3

on preparemovie

gDatabase1 = [["acorn", "acornpic", "acornsound"],["apple", "applepic", "applesound"], etc.

gDatabase2 = [["airplane", "airplanepic", "airplanesound"],etc.

gDatabase3 = [["airplane", "airplanepic", "airplanesound"],etc.
end

This is working great, i thought i'd mention it because I am unsure of the pros and cons of using globals compared to properties