//recursive function to convert an XML file to an array
function XMLtoArray(node:XMLNode, arr:Array):Array{
	var nodelen:Number = node.childNodes.length;//number of children nodes within a particular node
	var resultValue:Array = [];//result of a recursive call to this function
	var count:Number = 0;//index number of the current node relative to its siblings
 
	node = node.firstChild;
 
	//loop through node children
	for (var i=0; i < nodelen; i++) {
		//if the first child of that node does not have children
		//create an associative array with the node name equal to the node value
		if (node.firstChild.hasChildNodes() == false){
			arr[node.nodeName] = node.firstChild;
		}
		else{
			//else node has more nodes inside, make a recursive call to walk down the XML tree
			arr[count] = [];
			resultValue = XMLtoArray(node, arr[count]);
			if (resultValue != undefined){
				arr.push(resultValue);//push result into array
			}
		}
		//when loop is on its last iteration return the compiled array
		if (i == (nodelen-1)){
			return arr;
		}
		count++;
		node = node.nextSibling;
	}
 
	return undefined;
}
 
var imgXML:String = "<cat><img><filename>1.jpg</filename><caption>cap1</caption></img><img><filename>2.jpg</filename><caption>cap2</caption></img></cat>";
var xmlArray:Array = XMLtoArray(new XML(imgXML), new Array());
 
trace(xmlArray[0][0]["caption"]);
//xmlArray[0] goes into first node <cat>
//xmlArray[0][0] goes into second node <img>
//xmlArray[0][0]["caption"] retrieves contents of <caption>cap1</caption>
 
trace(xmlArray[0][1]["filename"]);
//outputs the filename of the second image