How can I remove / clear items out of a list control in Flex?

Question

I have a list control in Flex that has been data bound to an e4x xml object from an HTTPService.

I would now like to have a button that clears the list, how can I do this?

I have tried:

list.dataProvider = null;

which does not seem to work, I have also tried:

list.dataProvider = {};

which clears the items but leaves [object,object] as the first item in the list...

Answer 1

Perhaps...

list.dataProvider = new Array();

Answer 2

Setting the dataProvider to a new Array object will throw an error:

Implicit coercion of a value of type Array to an unrelated type fl.data:DataProvider.

Instead, you should use the removeAll() method provided by DataProvider:

list.dataProvider.removeAll();

This triggers a REMOVE_ALL event in the DataProvider which, in turn, will update your list.