how do i loop instance name without using "this" keyword?

Question

I created a square and saved it as a movieclip called starContainer, i draged three of them on the stage and gave each one instance names in my flash cs6 named - goldStarContainer1, goldStarContainer2 and goldStarContainer3.

In my library i also have a movieclip of a gold star called goldStar

now i would like to do an if else statment and if its true add the gold star to the right starContainer.

public var starScreen:starScreen;

FYI // dynamic starScreen MovieClip is added on click

for( var i:int = 1; i < 4; i++ )
{
    var levelNumStarNum:String = "L1star"+i;
    var goldStarOnPage:goldStar = new goldStar();

if( shared.data[levelNumStarNum] == undefined )
{
    // add no stars
}
else if( shared.data[levelNumStarNum] == 1 )
{
    // this works
    starScreen.goldStarContainer1.addChild(goldStarOnPage);
}
// but i would like to do something like this...

starScreen.goldStarContainer[i].addChild(goldStarOnPage);

I have tryed getChildByName but it keep giving me the error: Call to a possibly undefined method getChildByName through a reference with static type Class.

Answer 1

Try to change this:

starScreen.goldStarContainer1.addChild(goldStarOnPage);

to this:

DisplayObjectContainer(DisplayObjectContainer(starScreen).getChildByName("goldS‌​tarContainer"+i)).addChi‌​ld(goldStarOnPage);

and see if it helps