How to Make a Countdown in ActionScript

Created by Adobe Software for developing Flash-based web applications, ActionScript is a language that can be used to create both rich Internet applications and simple ones, such as countdown timers. Making a countdown timer in ActionScript is fairly straightforward and can be a good practice exercise for novice ActionScript programmers.

Instructions

1. Launch Adobe Flash or Flex, which are programs used to develop and edit ActionScript files. Create a new ActionScript 3 document.

2. Create a new object for the date by using the following code:

   var endDate:Date = new Date(2010, 5, 11);

3. Add a timer that updates the time every section by adding the following line of code:

   var timer:Timer = new Timer(1000);

4. Create a function that listens to the timer and automatically updates it by using the following code and modifying it to fit your needs:

   timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, updateTime);

   timer.start();

5. Create a function to calculate the time remaining by using the following code:

   function updateTime(e:TimerEvent):void{

   var currentDate:Date = newDate();

   vartimeLeft:Numer = endDate.getTime() - currentDate.getTime();

6. Convert the time that is remaining into minutes, hours, days and seconds by adding the following lines to the updateTime function:

   var seconds:Number = Math.floor(timeLeft / 1000);

   var minutes:Number = Math.floor(seconds / 60);

   var hours:Number = Math.floor(minutes / 60);

   var days:Number = Math.foor(hours / 24);

   seconds %= 60;

   minutes %= 60;

   hours %= 24;

7. Finalize the countdown timer by converting the numbers to strings with the following lines of code:

   var sec:String = seconds.toString();

   var min:String = seconds.toString();

   var hrs:String = hours.toString();

   var d:String = days.toString();

References

• Flash Speak ActionScript: Flash Countdown Timer
• iLike2Flash: Countdown Timer in ActionScript 3