[Codemonkey]

 
If you have an indexed array (array with 1, 2, 3, 4, ... indexes) and you want to know the index of a certain object, you can use the following function:

// returns index of an item in array, -1 if it isn't in the array
    function inArray(array:Array, item:Object):Number {
        for (var i in array) {
            if (array[i] == item) {
                return Number(i);
            }
        }
        return -1;
    } 

If you want to remove a certain object from an array and want to know whether the object was found (and so removed) you can use the following method in conjunction with the previous one:

// tries to remove an item from array and returns whether it worked
    function arrayRemove(array:Array, item:Object):Boolean {
        var index:Number = inArray(array, item);
        if (index != -1) {
            array.splice(index, 1);
        }
        return index != -1;
    } 

Usage:

var names:Array = new Array("Bob", "Shirley", "Pete");
trace(arrayRemove(array, "Bob")); // traces "true"
trace(arrayRemove(array, "Bill")); // traces "false" 
 

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You could also add these function to the Array class with prototyping as Nutrox explained in Tip 006. Or, you can add these methods to a global util class as explained in Tip 010