Accessing nested UIComponents

Question

The aim of the script is to be able to access component's
chldren, and their children, and their children, etc... by their
index.
I've tried the following:
// script
public function deployNesting():void {
var container:Canvas= new Canvas();
var chldA:Canvas = new Canvas();
var chldB:Canvas = new Canvas();
var chldC:Canvas = new Canvas();
this.addChild(this.container);
this.container.addChild(chldA);
this.container.addChild(chldB);
this.container.addChild(chldC);
return;
public function accessNesting():void {
trace(this.childAt(0).childAt(0))
// error 1119*
trace(this.childAt(0).numChildren)
// error 1119*
return;
*1119 : Access of possibly undefined property numChildren
through a reference with static type
flash.display:DisplayObject.
I'm aware that such nesting is not usually a best practice,
but in some cases it is required, and I would appreciate an advice
on this issue.
a.neko

Answer 1

Well... It's time to assume the therapeutical values of this
forum in my particular case : ) One more time, just after recurring
to all posiible ways to solve it, and afterwards posting a topic
here, I change my approach and find the solution...
In this case it is required to cast the return of all the
getChildAt() in the nesting structure, except the last one.
You can access a nested child to add a new child to it's
display list as follows:
Canvas(this.getChildAt(0)).addChild(chldC);
Accessing a deeply nested child's name property looks as
follows:
Canvas((Canvas(this.getChildAt(0))).getChildAt(0)).getChildAt(0).name;
etc...
Somewhat complicated, but solves the problem of accessing
nested children when, for instance, the variables used to create
them are gone, or to freely iterate through nested display lists...
(Verified with Flex 2.0 Builder mx.* components, but I
suppose it works also for flash.display.* objects.)
a.neko