A collection object contains a data object, such as an Array or an XMList object, and provides a set of methods that let you access, sort, filter, and modify the data items in that data object. Several Adobe® Flex® controls, known as data provider controls, have a dataProvider property that you populate with a collection.

The mx.collections.ArrayCollection and mx.collections.XMLListCollection classes are specific collection implementations that you can use with any data provider control in the Flex framework.

For more information on Flex controls that use data providers, see Using Data-Driven Controls and Using Menu-Based Controls.

• About collections and data provider components
• Using simple data access properties and methods
• Working with data views
• Collection events and manual change notification
• Hierarchical data objects
• Remote data in data provider components
• Data providers and the uid property