Trouble Using TimerEvent in While Loop

Question

Hello,
I am attempting to use a TimerEvent in a while loop. In the example I have created below, the init function should loop through the values myArray, tracing each value at three second intervals. It seems, however, that because I am incrementing the currentNum value outside of the while loop (in the timerHandler function), that the loop just keeps running until Flash stops responding.
var myArray:Array = new Array("one", "two", "three", "four", "five");
var currentNum:int;
var myTimer = new Timer(3000, 1);
function init():void {
while ( currentNum < myArray.length ) {
trace(myArray[currentNum]);
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, timerHandler);
    myTimer.start();
function timerHandler(e:TimerEvent):void {
currentNum += 1;
init();
I am wondering if what I am trying to do is simply not possible or if I am missing something.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on the matter.

Answer 1

Thanks, Ned. That makes sense. I was able to work around my problem by getting rid of the while loop and using a conditional statement to test if I had reached the end of the array.
var myArray:Array = new Array("one", "two", "three", "four", "five");
var currentNum:int;
var myTimer = new Timer(3000, 1);
function init():void {
traceArrayValue();
function traceArrayValue():void {
trace(myArray[currentNum]);
if (currentNum + 1 < myArray.length) {
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, timerHandler);
    myTimer.start();
function timerHandler(e:TimerEvent):void {
currentNum += 1;
traceArrayValue();
init();