Associative Array (Object) problems

Question

Here is the function i'm dealing with
i'm reading in a delimited string and using indexed arrays to
break them up and assign the keys and values to an associative
array in a loop.
i'm using variables in the loop and the array loads as
expected in the loop
but outside the loop, the only key is the variable name and
the value is undefined
this is true using dot or array notation, as well as literal
strings for the keys
any help is appreciated
watchSuspendData = function (id, oldval, newval):String {
//the incoming suspendData string is delimited by the
semicolon;
//newval is: firstValue=Yes;captivateKey=1
var listSuspendData:Array = newval.split(";"); // convert it
to a list of key/value pairs
if (listSuspendData.length > 0){
//line 123: listSuspendData.length is: 2
for (i=0; i < listSuspendData.length; i++){ //for each
key/value pair
var keyValArray:Array = new Array();
var myNameValue:String = listSuspendData
//line 127: listSuspendData is: firstValue=Yes
keyValArray = myNameValue.split("="); // split 'em on the
equal sign
var myKey:String = keyValArray[0];
var myVal:String = keyValArray[1];
//keyValArray[0] is: firstValue
//keyValArray[1] is: Yes
// store the key and the value in associative array
suspendDataArray.myKey = myVal;
trace("line 134: suspendDataArray is: " +
suspendDataArray.myKey);
// trace is line 134: suspendDataArray is: Yes on the first
pass and 1 on the second
//the below loop always returns one array key: myKey and the
value as undefined
for(x in suspendDataArray){
trace("x is: " + x); //x is: myKey
trace("the val is: " + suspendDataArray.x); //the val is:
undefined
} //end for
return newval;

Answer 1

on lines 12-13 i assign the key=value pair to string
variables
then on lines 17-18 i assign those values to the associative
array using dot notation
the trace seems to work there
the problem is that when the procedure exits the for loop,
the associative array only has one key (myKey) and no value
(undefined)
all the documentation i've read shows using these types of
arrays with either non-quoted property names like:
myAssocArray.myKey = "somevalue";
or
myAssocArray[myKey] = "somevalue";
i tried assigning the key/value pairs directly from the
indexed arrays, but the result was always undefined
like this:
suspendDataArray.keyValArray[0] = keyValArray[1]
or
suspendDataArray[keyValArray[0]] = keyValArray[1]
i even tried building a string in the loop and trying to
assign all the pairs at once using the curly brace
this is pretty wierd behavior for actionscript or i'm missing
something basic here
thanks for looking