AS3: Getting the scale of a Matrix object

Question

Most often, questions are asked about how to scale a DisplayObject, and the answer is usually to use a Matrix.

My question is, how to you GET the scale of a Matrix (

Answer 1

you have access to the matrix object's a and d public properties, which represent the scaling of the x-axis and y-axis respectively:

package
{
//Imports
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.geom.Matrix;
import flash.display.Shape;

//Class
public class Test extends Sprite
    {
    //Constructor
    public function Test()
        {       
        var sh:Shape = new Shape();
        sh.graphics.beginFill(0xFF0000, 1.0);
        sh.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, 100, 100);
        sh.graphics.endFill();

        var scaleMatrix:Matrix = new Matrix();
        scaleMatrix.scale(4, 6);

        sh.transform.matrix = scaleMatrix;

        addChild(sh);

        trace("Matrix X Scale: " + scaleMatrix.a, "\nMatrix Y Scale: " + scaleMatrix.d);
        }
    }
}

// Matrix X Scale: 4 
// Matrix Y Scale: 6