ActionScript 3 Language Specification

ActionScript 3.0 Language Specification > 5 Names > 5.3 Name lookup > 5.3.2 Lexical references

5.3.2 Lexical references

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Lexical references result from expressions involving a name but no base object. Whether a lexical reference is qualified or unqualified, with a literal identifier or expression, it results in a search of the scope chain of the lexical environment until either a match is found or the last scope is searched.

The scope chain might include the following kinds of scopes:

• Code inside a with statement will have a with frame as the inner most scope on the scope chain.
• Code inside a function definition will have an activation object on its scope chain.
• Code inside an instance method will have the instance this object on its scope chain.
• Code inside of a class definition, including in instance and static methods, will have the class objects of its base classes and the current class on the scope chain. The inner most class object corresponds to the most derived class, and the outermost class object corresponds to the Object class.
• Code everywhere has the global object as the outer most object on its scope chain.

The base object of a lexical reference is computed through the following steps:

• Let s be the list of scopes enclosing the reference being evaluated.
• Let n be the qualified name or set of qualified names that result from the operation described in section 5.3.1.1 Unqualified object references.
• Search the scopes in s starting from the innermost scope and continuing outwards until a scope is found that contains a property that matches n, or all scopes have been searched.
• If a match is found, return the scope that contains the matching property.
• Report a property not found error.

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