How to Pass a String as a MovieClip Name?

Question

Hi everyone! I'm back with more doubts
I created 4  buttons with 4 animations each, one for each state (using tweens), so I  have that imense list of 16 "addEventListeners" (don't know if there's  another way to do it). But everything is working as I would like.
The  problem is that I'm trying to create only 4 functions to take care of  all the 4 buttons and those 16 eventListeners.
This is  part of my AS3 file (still with the "traces", 5 secs of animation to  check the animations and all).
empresa_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, isOver);
empresa_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, isOut);
empresa_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, isDown);
empresa_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, isUp);
parceiros_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, isOver);
parceiros_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, isOut);
parceiros_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, isDown);
parceiros_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, isUp);
var mouseState:String;
var mouseActive:String;
var txt:String;
empresa_btn.over.alpha = 0; empresa_btn.down.alpha = 0;
parceiros_btn.over.alpha = 0; parceiros_btn.down.alpha = 0;
function isOver (e:MouseEvent):void {
     mouseActive = e.currentTarget.name;
     mouseState = "isOver";
     trace (mouseActive + " " + mouseState);
     var isOver:Tween = new Tween(empresa_btn.over, "alpha", Strong.easeOut, empresa_btn.over.alpha, 1, 5, true);
function isOut (e:MouseEvent):void {
     mouseActive = e.currentTarget.name;
     mouseState = "isOut";
     trace (mouseActive + " " + mouseState);
     var isOut:Tween = new Tween(empresa_btn.over, "alpha", Strong.easeOut, empresa_btn.over.alpha, 0, 5, true);
Now, what I'm trying to do is use the var "mouseActive"  that is returning the right button names inside the Tween as the  movieClips.
The problem is that "e.currentTarget.name" is not the  "movieClip" itself... it's just a String with the name of the movieClip.
Example:  whenever I try to do something like this:
var isOut:Tween = new Tween(mouseActive.over, "alpha", Strong.easeOut, mouseActive.over.alpha, 0, 5, true);
It will return an error cause, as I said, mouseActive is not a  movieClip, it's just a String (at least I think).
I already  thank you for the help (again)
And please, mind my nickname

Answer 1

Ned Murphy wrote:
You're welcome.
As a further opportunity to reduce code, since all your listeners are identical...
var btnArray:Array = new Array(btnNames go here, no quotes);
for(var i:uint=0; i<btnArray.length; i++){
     btnArray[i].addEventListener(...OVER...);
     btnArray[i].addEventListener(...OUT...);
     etc... including where you set alpha = 0
Gosh Ned! I had about 25 big lines of code, including things like "buttonMode = true" and now I have less than 10
This is totally crazy! I always tried to understand this array thing and always failed. It's complicated but your code made some sense after a while
I'm running out of "thanks" to give you hehe. Everything is working just fine but one little thing. I have a sound that plays when a button is clicked. It's working fine but everytime I open the swf the sound autoplay once =/
I'm using this code:
var btnSound:Sound = new clickSound(); //"clickSound" is the className I choosed when exported the sound to AS from the library
and then, inside the function MOUSE_DOWN I have:
btnSound.play();
Everything is working but I always hear the button sound playing one time when I open the swf. Do you know why?
Well, you already helped me a lot. Even more that I could have asked for.
Thanks!