Oral exam - Flash CS4 - Local/global variables?

Question

Hi!
In two days, i have an Oral exam in flash programming, with CS4.
we've been given a problem to solve, and i naturally am having problems solving it!
This is the problem
You are suppost to make a calculator. The calculator should be able to show how much time a person uses
when he/she climbs a mountain when hiking. Time is counted in minutes, and the height is the mountain-height.
a) I should be able to calculate, and show how many heightmeters one walks per minute.
example:
Height: 1440 meters
time: 360 minutes
1440/360 = 4 Heightmeters per minute.
4 * 60 = 240 heightmeters per hour
So, i pretty much figured this out.
iHeight, iTime and iHeightmeters, and iHeightmeters2(for the hour one).
My problem shows itsself when i get to b.
b) animation: Show a person that walks from the bottom, to the top of the mountain, in this application(basically the stage, with the calculator on the right side or something along those lines)
I animated, and i was able to give my "guy" some speed in x and y direction, so that he walks up to the top of the mountain.
c) Let the speed from a, decide the speed the person walking up the mountain has.
So what i'm suppost to do is:
mcWalkingman.x += iHeightmeters;
mcWalkingman.y += iHeightmeters;
Theese values have to recide in a function for themselfs, a function only containing speed variables and such. While the "iHeightmeters" recide in the first function where the calculator is. How do i get whatever value iHeightmeters turns out to be, into the next function or another function at all, when the variables are local?
I hope you understand my problem, and that someone is able to help me.

Answer 1

If i got you right you want to share a variable between differnet functions ?
You need to specify it globally and not within the function. If you are programming it just in the Flash IDE, it would be something like
var iHeightmeters:int = 123456;
testFunction();
function testFunction():void
    trace("iHeightmeters = " + iHeightmeters);
If you do this within a class, it should be
private var iHeightmeters:int = 123456;
testFunction();
private function testFunction():void
     trace("iHeightmeters = " + iHeightmeters);