How to get a reference to the owner of a class instance?

Question

Within a method of a class, how can I get a reference to the
object containing the class instance?
To be clear: I have class B that contains a method, say
"myfunc()". Class A (say, the application itself or a custom
component) instantiates a new instance of Class B : myclassB=new
ClassB()
Now, from within myfunc() can I get a reference to Class A?
The simplest way here is to pass a "this" reference when
calling myfunc(), i.e. "myclassB.myfunc(this)" but I would prefer
not to have to remember to always use 'this'.

Answer 1

Are these objects within each other. Does classA own classB?
If that is the case, then Greg is correct and it should be
available in parentDocument.
In projects in the past we have created a central
refObjectLocator object that is available to all objects.
Mostly we use events to communicate between objects. Dispatch
an event and let whoever listen for it.
Here is a copy of our reflocator if you are interested.
package com.goconfigure.model {
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
import com.adobe.cairngorm.model.ModelLocator;
import com.goconfigure.util.HashMap;
[Bindable]
public class RefObjectLocator implements ModelLocator {
// this instance stores a static reference to itself
private static var refObject : RefObjectLocator;
public var refObjectHM : HashMap = new HashMap();
// singleton: constructor only allows one model locator
public function AppLocator() : void {
if ( RefObjectLocator.refObject != null )
throw new Error( "Only one RefObjectLocator instance should
be instantiated" );
// singleton: always returns the one existing static
instance to itself
public static function getInstance() : RefObjectLocator {
if ( refObject == null )
refObject = new RefObjectLocator();
return refObject;
public function addRefObject( pRefObject : Object, pName :
String ) : void {
refObjectHM.put(pName,pRefObject);
public function getRefObject( pName : String ) : Object {
return refObjectHM.getValue(pName);
public function removeRefObject( pName : String ) : void {
refObjectHM.remove(pName);
public function clearRefObject() : void {
refObjectHM.clear();