What is the best way of Exception Handling

There are many ways to handle the exceptions of a program.
1: You could put every exception handler in the most upper abstract classes.
2: You could write a generic exception that handles a lot of things.
3: You could write exceptions handling for every class.
4: you could group the exception handling.
many, many more ways.
Question:
What is the best way to do this?

There are many ways to handle the exceptions of a program.
1: You could put every exception handler in the most upper abstract classes.I woldn't do that always, a class may throw an exception if it's not able to handle it prperly, but it may, so it'll catch it. Throw Exception in abract supper clases only when you are sure the children must always throw the exception, not processing it.
2: You could write a generic exception that handles a lot of things.Bad idea, if you always throw an Exception no informtaion is provaided about whta happened, if you throw a NullPointerException and a NumberFormatException in one of your method I (for example) colud handle properly both problems, one likely to be a programming erros, so check my cod eagain, and the other like to be an user error in introduciong some data, so I wold ask him for the data again.
3: You could write exceptions handling for every class.Write exceptions handling for every class that needs it, throwing the exception if at that moment you don't know what to do with it and catching it if yes. Do not employ too many exception handling: execution of try catch blcks is slower than usuall code.
4: you could group the exception handling.I don't undestand this. What do youmean?
Question:
What is the best way to do this? In general thrwo an exception if the class dosen't know what to do with it, the class which uses yours will handle it. If your class can process the Exception, don't be too lazy and process it.
Employ exceptions always you need them but do not abuse; thay made the code execute slower because the VM machine must check if the exceotions occur.
abraham.

Similar Messages

What are the best practices for exception handling in n-tier applications?

What are the best practices for exception handling in n-tier applications?
The application is a fat client based on MVVM pattern with .NET framework.

What are the best practices for exception handling in n-tier applications?
The application is a fat client based on MVVM pattern with
.NET framework.
That would be to catch all exceptions at a single point in the n-tier solution, log it and create user friendly messages displayed to the user.

What's the best way to handle this?

I'm not sure what APIs/setup to use for this situation:
A company wants to store data projects they do for clients. Each year, the data fields are set (as a result of gov't requirements) and they won't change for any client project for that year. however, the fields required can (and usually do) change every year. So things they require this year, might not be needed the next year and new fields might be introduced.
While there are likely to be many common fields from year to year, there's no way to guarantee which ones will remain consistent. They also want to be able to do searches on the data and fields, for projects within a year and across years.
What's the best framework/API/configuration to handle this? EJB? Simple JDBC? If so, how should the database be handled? Won't it have to constantly create new fields in a table? Or is there another way to handle this?
What's the best way from a "clean architecture" standpoint?

dang, I really have to start over? I finally got all this stuff working again. well, hopefully it won't be as big a pain this time since the data won't be coming from a different machine. After completing the Migration Assistant process, I had to reinput a bunch of serial numbers for apps, reinstall print and mouse drivers, etc... I've finally got the new machine up and running smoothly and now I gotta start over? Sigh.
I was hoping that either I could rename the current account after deleting the other one, or just move everything from one account to the other and then delete the 'RJM' account.
ok, so it sounds like here are the steps I need to take:
- make another full cloned backup of this current machine in Super Duper
- reboot this machine using the advice in the first post, wipe everything clean and reinstall the OS
- create a new account like 'user1' and re-do software update (which is like 2.5 gig worth of stuff) and takes like an hour even on a high speed connection
- then re-do the migration assistant process to the properly named account
- then delete the 'user1' account
does that sound right?

What's the best way for a web app to handle logins and sessions?

I'm deploying in JBoss, using JSF. As is often the case, I keep User information in an entity bean. My question is, what's the best way to handle this bean?
My inclination is to create a login page with a LoginBackingBean atached to it. When the user attempts to log in, it will see if there is a User entity bean that corresponds to the given name and password. If there is no User bean that matches, obviously we show an informative error screen.
But what happens if there is a valid user?
In the plain old Servlet world (without EJB / J2EE) I would just put the User object (it's an object, not an EJB) into the HttpSession, and I would create a Filter that would check for the presence of that User object, and I would map the filter to something like /members/*, and that would be it. I would use Hibernate to persist the User object, and there would also be a filter that creates a Hibernate session and stores it in the Request so that the User object would work and persist.
How do I do this within the J2EE / EJB world?
My first thought would be to just do the same thing. Install the User bean into the HttpSession, and create a filter and do all the same stuff. Is that the right way to do it? It would work pretty well with JSF because I could just access things in the normal JSF way: #{user.firstName} would find the "user" object in the HttpSession scope. So that's good.
One question that comes up from that is if the user makes some change to the User object that is in the Session scope, will the EJB automatically do the right thing and make those changes persistent? Is there anything else I need to do?
I'm new to the EJB world, but from what I can see so far, it seems like it's the best way to think about a web application.
Thanks

hi ,
i think the best way is to create java beans ,in that bean call your EJB ,
and check the validation over there.
and make that bean scope to session.
in each and everypage try to check the session ,if it is not valid then forward to your login page...
otherwise continue to give access to him like guest
Regards,
AfTaB

What is the best way to handle .mod files in premiere pro cs4?

I recently got a JVC Everio GZ-MG130u and as I'm sure many of you are aware, it saves footage in the .mod format.
I have googled this and found quite a few different solutions, but I'm just wondering if anything has changed since some of these solutions were posted, or in other words, what is the best way at this current point in time to handle .mod files in premiere pro cs4?
As far as I know, the best thing to do is convert the .mod to .avi and then import it into premiere so it can be edited.. Is there a better way to do it than this? Also, by doing it this way, will I have separate audio and video tracks?
Thanks.

I have just done a bit of reading, here. All of the quotes that follow are from users who have posted in that thread.
It seems that there isn't one solid answer on this subject. The thread that I linked to was started 2 years ago, and replied to just 4 ago, so it's relatively current.
I noticed a couple different interesting statements:
posted by mmontgomery:
In the case of .MOD, you are actually getting a MPEG-2 file. The way
video files work is that there is a codec (COmpressor/DECompressor)
algorithm and a file wrapper (or extension). A JVC .MOD file is a
MPEG-2 encoded file, with a .MOD extension.
You're faced with two
challenges, first the .MOD file type is only recognized and support by a
few applications. I think we covered some of those already. The
interesting thing about wrappers and extensions is that they can be
dealt with in a variety of ways. Sometimes all you need to do to convert
the video file to a compatible video file is to change the extension.
In the case of .MOD files that's not enough. The .MOD wrapper apparently
does a few more things than just bare a unique extension name. It
requires a slightly more complicated method to convert that file. That
is why there is supplied software and that certain third party
applications have .MOD support.
(posted 2 years ago)
This seems to indicate that Ann's solution of simply re-naming the extension is not good enough, unless I am mis-interpreting what she meant.
However, another user said:
posted by futball8:
I edit with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. All I have to do is simply rename
the .MOD files as .MPG and then import into PP CS3. It takes a small
amount of time to conform the audio, but no file conversion is
necessary. It's a pretty slick workflow and I've never encountered any
problems editing them this way.
(posted 5 months ago)
One can only assume that simply re-naming the extension from .mod to .mpg works in some circumstances, and doesn't work in others. I assume it depends largely on the editing software being used. Perhaps there are still issues that futball8 was simply unaware of or never encountered.
That said, there seems to be a couple of different real solutions to this problem that I have found:
1. Simply use an editing program that supports .mod file format. While pe7 and pe8 supposedly support the .mod format, the following should be noted:
posted by macksgarage:
While Elements 'supports' these files, it is markedly unstable and frequently crashes while using the files, though the application is otherwise reliable. The solution I have arrived at is to repair the container using ffmpeg. (see #3)
(posted 5 months ago)
2. Use a file conversion utility of your choice that will covert .mod to .avi, or another desired format. Import the resulting .avi file into premiere pro cs4.
3. Use FFmpeg. This seems to be the best solution as it does not convert any audio or video:
posted by macksgarae:
If you are not familiar with ffmpeg, it may be a bit of a bear to
learn, but it's not only useful for this, but functions as a video swiss
army knife useful for splicing, muxing/demuxing, and rendering just
about any format into just about any other format.
ffmpeg is an open source project from the linux world, but it has
been ported and is supported on windows. Fetch it here and place it somewhere handy
on your system.
To rewrite the container into a nice, standards compliant .mpg file
that doesn't make applications die, WITHOUT rerendering video or audio
itself, I use this command.
ffmpeg -i INFILE.MOD -acodec copy - vcodec copy OUTFILE.mpg
This not only renames the file, but actually rebuilds the container
around unmodified video and audio data, yielding a file which works much
more stably with Adobe applications, and presumably others as well, as
ffmpeg's open source development goals result in very standards
compliant files.
(posted 5 months ago)
Now, this seems to properly address the issues that can arise from simply renaming .mod to .mpg, as suggested by Ann. So from this point, I assume you can simply import the .mpg into Premiere Pro cs4 (or any other .mpg compliant program) and edit without issue, but it seems like I remember hearing something about Premiere not liking mpegs or something like that, so in that case, maybe it'd be better to skip this and go with option #2. But, it's been awhile since I've touched any NLE, much less premiere pro cs4, so I could be completely wrong and it may have no problems handling mpegs.
All of the things that I've quoted here came from the same thread, so I don't know how accurate any of this is, but the people that have posted these things seem fairly knowledgeable. If someone reads all of this and can confirm or deny any of it, it would be much appreciated.
Option 1 is not really an option for me, because I am sticking with premiere pro cs4 -- I'm not going to get another editor just because it has .mod support. That leaves me with options 2 and 3: Convert to avi, or change the file wrapper/extension properly with FFmpeg and then simply import the resulting .mpg file... Which is better? Or is there yet another solution that I am unaware of that would be even better?

What's the best way to handle all my data?

I have a black box system that connects directly to a PC and sends 60 words of data at 10Hz (worse case scenario). The black box continuously transmits these words, which contain a large amount of data that is continuously updated from up to 50 participants (again worst case scenario)
i.e. 60words * 16bits * 10Hz * 50participants = 480Kbps. All of this is via a UDP Ethernet connection.
I have LabVIEW reading the data without any problem. I now want to manipulate this data and then distribute it to other PCs on a network via TCP/IP.
My question is what is the best way of storing my data locally on the interface PC so that I can then have clients request the information they require via TCP/IP. Each message that comes in via the Ethernet will relate to one of the participants, so I need to be able to check if I already have data about that participant - if I do then I can just update it, if I don't I need to create a record for the participant, and if I havn't heard from one for a while I will need to delete it. I don't want to create unnecessary network traffic. I also want to avoid global variables if possible - especially considering that I may have up to 3000 variables to play with.
I'm not after a solution, just some ideas about how to tackle this problem... I thought I could perhaps create a database and have labview update a table with the data, adding a record for each participant. Alternatively is there a better way of storing all the data in memory besides global variables?
Thanks in advance.

Hi russelldav,
one note on your data handling:
When each of the 50 participants send the same 60 "words" you don't need 3000 global variables to store them!
You can reorganize those data into a cluster for each participant, and using an array of cluster to keep all the data in one "block".
You can initialize this array at the start of the program for the max number of participants, no need to (dynamically) add or delete elements from this array...
Edited:
When all "words" have the same representation (I16 ?) you can make a 2D array instead of an array of cluster...
Message Edited by GerdW on 10-26-2007 03:51 PM
Best regards,
GerdW
CLAD, using 2009SP1 + LV2011SP1 + LV2014SP1 on WinXP+Win7+cRIO
Kudos are welcome

What's the best way to handle new versions of software?

So we have an Application setup for Adobe Reader (just using Reader as a general example) which is part of our Task Sequence. When Adobe releases a new version of Reader, what's the best way to handle getting the new version into our SCCM setup.
I know I can create a new application and do it all over and select the new file, but can I simply replace the files that the application is pointing to and then somehow tell it to update the DPs with the new files? I'd rather not have to create new
applications every time if I don't have to.
Thanks.

I think continue the way you are doing right now by creating a new application each time there is a version change. Its a clean way to do and this helps with Application life cycle mgmt aswell where you keep track of versions across the environments and
eventually retire an application. Specially where no changes are made without a change control. This is completely process specific and may not be applicable.
i do agree with above posted comments about using supercedence option.
However most of the apps comes with upgrade capabilities from previous versions. So you can upgrade existing version with new one if you do not wish to use supercedence.
Thanks

What is the best way to handle input parameter

When writing sub-vi's, what is the best way to handle input parameter range checking? On the front panel I can choose to have numeric values coerced to be within range, but this does not affect constants or controls wired to the vi when used as a sub-vi. I can build range checking into the vi, but this can result in a cluttered looking vi. Do you have any suggestions.

As you discovered, the Range and Coercion properties of controls do not work when used in sub-vis.
Your best option is to go ahead and build your range checking into your sub-vis. If it�s something you will be doing a lot, just make your range checking a sub-vi and drop it where needed. This will keep the clutter to a minimum. You may end up with more than one range checking VI if you need different functionality, but this will still make less clutter and easier re-use.
Ed
Ed Dickens - Certified LabVIEW Architect - DISTek Integration, Inc. - NI Certified Alliance Partner
Using the Abort button to stop your VI is like using a tree to stop your car. It works, but there may be consequences.

What is the best way to handle collections that contains different object

Hi
Suppose i have two class as below
class Parent {
       private String name;
class Child extends Parent {
      private int childAge;
}I have a list that can contains both Child and Parent Object but in my jsp i want to display a childAge attribute ( preferrably not to use scriplet )
what is the best way to achieve this?

Having a collection containing different object types is already a bad start.
How are parent and child related to each other? Shouldn't Child be a property of Parent?
E.g.public class Parent {
    private Child child;
}In any way, you could in theory just check Object#getClass()#getName(), but this is a nasty design.

What is the best way to double buffer in this case and how to do it....

currently I have
public class Frame1 extends JFrame{
//inside this class I call up circle class, rectangle class, etc.... to draw
}I am making a "paint" program, and I have individual classes to handle the paint methods heres an example:
abstract public class Shape {
    public Shape() {
    public abstract void draw(Graphics g, Color c, int x, int y, int width,int height);
}and then....
public class Circle extends Shape{
    public Circle() {
    public void draw(Graphics g, Color c, int oldx, int oldy, int newx, int newy) {
        g.setColor(c);
        g.drawOval(Math.min(oldx, newx), Math.min(oldy, newy), Math.abs(oldx - newx), Math.abs(oldy - newy));
}There is also a Rectangle class, line class.... etc! So my question to you is the following... what is the best way to implement double buffer in the individual classes? And how to do it?? And also.... the drawings should be kept inside a jPanel.
Any bit of help is much appreciated Thank you!!

You don't need to do double-buffering. Swing
components are double-buffered by default. Just make
sure you override paintComponent() and not paint().
And even if you had to, why would there be any
difference in implementation for your classes whether
they paint to on- or off-screen graphics?I need to override paintComponent()? what if I don't...
I am using JBuilder2005 and they automate somethings for me. So thats how they did it when they created the application they did this....
public class Frame1 extends JFrame{
/*** all my code here***/
public class Application1 {
    boolean packFrame = false;
     * Construct and show the application.
    public Application1() {
        Frame1 frame = new Frame1();
        // Validate frames that have preset sizes
        // Pack frames that have useful preferred size info, e.g. from their layout
        if (packFrame) {
            frame.pack();
        } else {
            frame.validate();
        // Center the window
        Dimension screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
        Dimension frameSize = frame.getSize();
        if (frameSize.height > screenSize.height) {
            frameSize.height = screenSize.height;
        if (frameSize.width > screenSize.width) {
            frameSize.width = screenSize.width;
        frame.setLocation((screenSize.width - frameSize.width) / 2,
                          (screenSize.height - frameSize.height) / 2);
        frame.setVisible(true);
        try {
            jbInit();
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
     * Application entry point.
     * @param args String[]
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try {
                    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.
                                             getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
                } catch (Exception exception) {
                    exception.printStackTrace();
                new Application1();
    private void jbInit() throws Exception {
}

What's the best way to check whether a user is logged in or not?

I have a question about basic session handling.
I'm running Tomcat 5.0.30 and have a web application where users can register with a username and password, and then log into a "member site".
What is the best way of making sure that a user actually has logged in or not?
What I've done in previous applications I've made is that I've just put a simple variable into the users session after he has successfully entered his password (i.e. Boolean loggedIn=true). Then I just test if this flag is true to grant him access to the member site. Is that a smart way of doing it?
Are there any libraries I can use which handles sessions for me in a secure way?
All comments and suggestions are appreciated!

Maintain a flag using session attributes it to one when the user is logs in set it to value.... and change set it zero or invalidate that session... when the user is logged out...
use something like this while user had logged in
session.setAttribute("flag",<unique_number>);
for checking whether the user had logged in or not...
if(Integer.parseInt(session.getAttribute("flag").toString())=!<unique_number>){
out.println("The session had expired");
out.close();
}

What is the best way to organize music by artist with various artist...

What is the best way in iTunes 7 to organize my music by an artist who has several songs that have appearances by other artist? I now have about 400 Artist, in my artist list.
1-Most of them are by the same Artist but with people who appear on their album as a special guest. What is the best solution for this?
2-The same Artist appear on someone else's album what is the best solutions for this? I would like to have as few categories as possible.
When I have a track with 2 artist, how will iTunes handle both Artist or do I have to determine? If I choose 1 Artist, does this mean that when I search for the 2nd Artist that the track would not be found. Please help me. I want to fix my Library so I can back it up.

Do you mean the Artist and the Album
Artist fields?
There is the Artist field. This is for the
artist(s) doing the song.
There is the Album Artist field. This is for
who's album it is.
If there are featured artists on a song, I usually
take them out of the Artist field and put it
after the song title.
"Smooth" - Santana featuring Rob Thomas becomes
"Smooth featuring Rob Thomas" - Santana.
This way I don't end up with a bunch of different
artists showing up in the Artists column.
That wwas exactly what I was talking about.

What is the best way of setting up Family Sharing?

I just bought my son an iPad Mini and I am trying to decide on what is the best way of setting it up for him. The one thing I do know is that I do NOT want all the content that is my iPhone 6 to pop up on his iPad Mini. I want his iPad to be used for his games and educational stuff and his own music. I don't mind setting up a family photo album and share photos with the family. So is the Family Sharing option the best way of doing this based on what I just mentioned? Do I set him up with his own Apple ID? If so will everything still be based off my account so he won't have to create his own iTunes Library?
I always use iTunes gift cards to purchase music and content. Will I be able to continue to use them even if I want to put some new content on his iPad and not my iPhone? Do I enter in his Apple ID info. Can you restrict certain family members to just certain things for example you only want to share photos with one person whereas you might want to share your music with another family member?
Any suggestions on the best way of setting this up would great!
Thanks!

Hi DVX100Shooter,
Congratulations on getting your son a new iPad, I am sure he will enjoy it.
Family Sharing is one way of managing both purchases and content between members of a related group of people. Each member must have their own Apple ID. You can choose what music you wish to share with the family from your own account. See this article -
OS X Yosemite: Share purchases with your family
In particular the section titled Hide a purchase from other family members
The music library on your son's iPad is separate from yours, but under Family Sharing you agree to pay for all purchases made through the iTunes store. If you wish to control what is purchased you can set up the Ask to Buy option for any family member under adult age in your location. See this article for details -
Request and make purchases with Ask to Buy - Apple Support
Gift cards may not be used for billing of purchases under family sharing, with the exception that a family member may use gift cards to purchase their own content. See this article for information about Family Sharing billing policies -
Family purchases and payments - Apple Support
The shared family photo album is available to all family members.
Family Sharing - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

What is the best way to set up my new Mac Pro?

Not wanting to screw up in a process I've not done with a brand new machine before, I'm looking for feedback on my plan for setting my new Mac Pro next week...
The physical plan is this:
For RAM, I have four 2GB SDRAM's plus the supplied six 1GB modules. My plan here is to install the 2GB rams into the first four slots and install four of the 1GB modules into the remaining four slots for a total of 12GB's.
When the cost for 4GB modules gets down to reasonable, I'll buy four of them and bump the current rams down the line which will then give me a total of 24 gigs where I'll stay.
For my hard drives, I'm installing a 160GB Intel X25-M into the first drive bay
http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/mainstream/index.htm
using one of MaxUpgrades' 'MaxConnects' kits. I will use this drive for the operating system software and my applications and their libraries.
Next, into the remaining three drive bays, I am installing three 300GB WD Velociraptors. Mine are the pre-'backplane ready' versions:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=459
so I have bought these sleds for them...
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_i d=180
I own one of Sonnet's Tempo SATA E4P cards
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/temposatae4p.html
which, thanks to this forum, I now understand, with the correct firmware installed, function well so I will install it and be able to establish hardware RAID. I will create a RAID 0 set with the three Velociraptors and use it to store all of my data files.
Backup will happen on a 1TB WD 'Caviar Black' external drive connected through one of the Sonnet card's external eSATA ports and using the OS 'Time Machine' software.
And that's the physical plan. My question is about setting things up. The physical installation part is straight forward and I don't expect any difficulties but I'm wondering what is the best way to install the operating system.
Do I take a first step keeping the supplied hard drive installed, install the solid state drive into the next drive bay and then transfer the contents from the supplied drive onto the SSD or do I do the complete physical installation process and do a 'C' drive start up and install the OS that way?
And, do you have any tips/suggestions on setting up the RAID 0 set?
thanks for the help. I want to do this right.
JQ

oh mighty Hatter, I knew you'd have helpful guidance to offer! And thank you. You've confirmed my anxieties about the Sonnet card; kind of a 'too much, too quickly' sort of thing. And it's not that Sonnet's not a good company. Just everything to do with new technologies and the growth curve we all, manufacturers and users, go through when they come out. And, for sure, the new Mac Pro's are new technology; the single biggest forward leap in Apple's top-of-the-line machines for some time far as I can tell. Just reading at Intel's website about the Nehalem's is a joy!
So, I will proceed now with everything except for the controller card, leaving that 'til later. In the meantime, I think I'll just happily run with the four hard drives all running independently. No software RAID. I know just those, the SSD boot drive plus Velociraptor trio's going inside of a 2.66ghz 8-core Nehalem Mac Pro is going to be a working pleasure. Heck, this way, I'll get settled in and used to the machine's speed, have a great time doing so and then, in however many months, I can jump into spending another chunk of money on an excellent RAID card, RAID card's dear Barefeats will have tested and reviewed for us, set up my RAID 0 set and head of to those new races watching my computer leap for joy! Could be that, by then, the cost of Intel 160GB X25-M's will have dropped enough that I can afford to go for a second and have a two SSD RAID 0 boot drive... Yummy!
Thanks for the help. Like I say, I knew there was useful guidance hanging on some limb within your personal kit, (otherwise referred to as your mind)!
Interesting to read about the problems people have had with Sonnet's 2.17 update in PPC's... In this computer, my PowerMac G5 dual 2.7ghz, I have a Sonnet 'Tempo Sata X4P' controller card. I downloaded and installed 2.17 and got the same troubles; no cut, no paste, no 'drag and drop' etc. It was miserable.
Mine, fortunately, magically corrected after running the 'permissions verify and correct' process in Disc Utility and, after a restart, all was back to almost normal but for one exception; the Sonnet card was no longer present or functioning including the four eSATA ports out the back. (I ran Tech Tools Pro 5's repair suites first but, and who knows why, it didn't correct the problem...) This one was absolutely in the 'who knows what the f_'s going on and why it disappeared but did' class.
Oh, the other remnant is that, when the computer goes into sleep, after about five minutes, the fans rev up, and up, and the computer's frozen; only access is to do a forced shutdown pressing and holding the power button, so I've had to adopt a 'shut down whenever leaving it for more than fifteen minutes' approach to this dear friend. Once I've fully moved into and established my new one (which should arrive today, by the way... Yippeee!!! Can't wait!), I'll do a complete restoration on this one including taking out the Sonnet card. Usually, I sell my old Pro's but, this time, I'm going to keep this one as a back up and just general second computer for times I might need it. It has been such a great and dependable machine. Keeping it seems the right thing to do.
thanks Hatter. I'll let you know how things go, including what happens with the SSD. I don't have speed test software so I won't be able to track it's performance like that guy in the post you gave me did...
JQ
ps- Gotta love that ILLogic fellow eh? Talk about not getting the essence!

What is the best way of dealing with an "implicit coercion" of an array to a sprite?

Hello everyone!
     With continued help from this forum I am getting closer to having a working program. I look forward to being able to help others like myself once I finish learning the AS3 ropes.
     I will briefly explain what I am trying to achieve and then follow it up with my question.
Background
     I have created a 12 x 9 random number grid that populates each cell with a corresponding image based on each cell's numeric value. I have also created a shuffle button that randomizes the numbers in the grid. The problem I am running into is getting my button-click event to clear the current images off the grid in order to assign new ones (i.e. deleting the display stack objects in order to place news ones in the same locations).
Question
     My question is this: what is the best way to handle an implicit coercion from an array to a sprite? I have pasted my entire code below so that you can see how the functions are supposed to work together. My trouble apparently lies with not being able to use an array value with a sprite (the sprite represents the actual arrangement of the grid on the display stack while the array starts out as a number than gets assigned an image which should be passed to the sprite).
============================================================================
package
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.display.DisplayObject;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.text.TextFormat;
import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;
public class Blanko extends MovieClip
      // Holds 12*9 grid of cells.
      var grid:Sprite;
      // Holds the shuffle button.
      var shuffleButton:Sprite;
      // Equals 12 columns, 9 rows.
      var cols:int = 12;
      var rows:int = 9;
      // Equals number of cells in grid (108).
      var cells:int = cols * rows;
      // Sets cell width and height to 40 pixels.
      var cellW:int = 40;
      var cellH:int = 40;
      // Holds 108 cell images.
      var imageArray:Array = [];
      // Holds 108 numerical values for the cells in the grid.
      var cellNumbers:Array = [];
      // Constructor calls "generateGrid" and "makeShuffleButton" functions.
      public function Blanko()
           generateGrid();
           makeShuffleButton();
// Creates and displays the 12*9 grid.
private function generateGrid():void
       grid = new Sprite;
       var i:int = 0;
       for (i = 0; i < cells; i++)
            cellNumbers.push(i % 9 + 1);
       trace("Before shuffle: ", cellNumbers);
       shuffleCells(cellNumbers);
       trace("After shuffle: ", cellNumbers);
       var _cell:Sprite;
       for (i = 0; i < cells; i++)
            // This next line is where the implicit coercion occurs. "_cell" is a sprite that tries
               to temporarily equal an array value.
            _cell = drawCells(cellNumbers[i]);
            _cell.x = (i % cols) * cellW;
            _cell.y = (i / cols) * cellH;
            grid.addChild(_cell);
// Creates a "shuffle" button and adds an on-click mouse event.
private function makeShuffleButton():void
       var _label:TextField = new TextField();
       _label.autoSize = "center";
       TextField(_label).multiline = TextField(_label).wordWrap = false;
       TextField(_label).defaultTextFormat = new TextFormat("Arial", 11, 0xFFFFFF, "bold");
       _label.text = "SHUFFLE";
       _label.x = 4;
       _label.y = 2;
       shuffleButton = new Sprite();
       shuffleButton.graphics.beginFill(0x484848);
       shuffleButton.graphics.drawRoundRect(0, 0, _label.width + _label.x * 2, _label.height +
                                            _label.y * 2, 10);
       shuffleButton.addChild(_label);
       shuffleButton.buttonMode = shuffleButton.useHandCursor = true;
       shuffleButton.mouseChildren = false;
       shuffleButton.x = grid.x + 30 + grid.width - shuffleButton.width;
       shuffleButton.y = grid.y + grid.height + 10;
       this.addChild(shuffleButton);
       shuffleButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onShuffleButtonClick);
// Clears cell images, shuffles their numbers and then assigns them new images.
private function onShuffleButtonClick():void
   eraseCells();
   shuffleCells(cellNumbers);
   trace("After shuffle: ", cellNumbers);
   for (var i:int = 0; i < cells; i++)
    drawCells(cellNumbers[i]);
// Removes any existing cell images from the display stack.
private function eraseCells(): void
   while (imageArray.numChildren > 0)
    imageArray.removeChildAt(0);
// Shuffles cell numbers (randomizes array).
private function shuffleCells(_array:Array):void
   var _number:int = 0;
   var _a:int = 0;
   var _b:int = 0;
   var _rand:int = 0;
   for (var i:int = _array.length - 1; i > 0; i--)
    _rand = Math.random() * (i - 1);
    _a = _array[i];
    _b = _array[_rand];
    _array[i] = _b;
    _array[_rand] = _a;
// Retrieves and assigns a custom image to a cell based on its numerical value.
private function drawCells(_numeral:int):Array
   var _classRef:Class = Class(getDefinitionByName("skin" + _numeral));
   _classRef.x = 30;
   imageArray.push(_classRef);
   imageArray.addChild(_classRef);
   return imageArray;
===========================================================================
     Any help with this is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Rothrock,
     Thank you for the reply. Let me address a few things here in the hopes of allowing you (and others) to better understand my reasoning for doing things in this manner (admittedly, there is probably a much better/easier approach to what I am trying to accomplish which is one of the things I hope to learn/discover from these posts).
     The elements inside my "imageArray" are all individual graphics that I had imported, changed their type to movie clips using .Sprite as their base class (instead of .MovieClip) and then saved as classes. The reason I did this was because the classes could then be referenced via "getDefinitionByName" by each cell value that was being passed to it. In this grid every number from 1 to 9 appears randomly 12 times each (making the 108 cells which populate the grid). I did not, at the time (nor do I now), know of a better method to implement for making sure that each image appears in the cell that has the corresponding value (i.e. every time a cell has the value of 8 then the custom graphic/class "skin8" will be assigned to it so that the viewer will be able to see a more aesthetically pleasing numerical representation, that is to say a slightly more fancy looking number with a picture behind it). I was advised to store these images in an array so that I could destroy them when I reshuffle the grid in order to make room for the new images (but I probably messed up the instructions).
     If the "drawCell" function only returns a sprite rather than the image array itself, doesn't that mean that my "eraseCells" function won't be able to delete the array's children as their values weren't first returned to the global variable which my erasing function is accessing?
     As for the function name "drawCells," you have to keep in mind that a) my program has been redesigned in stages as I add new functionality/remove old functionality (such as removing text labels and formatting which were originally in this function) and b) that my program is called "Blanko."
     I will try and attach an Illustrator exported JPG file that contains the image I am using as the class "skin7" just to give you an example of what I'm trying to use as labels (although it won't let me insert it here in this post, so I will try it in the next post).
Thank you for your help!

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