
Macromedia Director Support Center - Lingo, Behaviors and Parent Scripts
Complex lists

The Complex lists show me movie demonstrates behaviors that manage a complex database list.

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The Show Me uses lists within lists to create a database. See the following topic for an explanation of this technique:

Structuring a complex list
The Complex List Show Me movie creates an employee database using a Lingo list.

At the highest level, the database list is a linear list of employee records. Each record is a property list containing recordNum , a record number property, and info , an information property. The info property contains another property list that holds the employee last name and department.

This data structure lets you store information about an employee, such as a unique record number, and multiple pieces of information about that employee. You can use the same structure to store multiple pieces of information about a sprite.

It can be difficult with complex data to retrieve information several levels deep in a complex list. To make it easier, break the task into steps. For example, Complex List behaviors first retrieve a record from the database list and then extract the information list from the record to change an information item.

David Benman

data structure, data array, lists, database lists, record list, linear list, complex list, property list

31 October 1997