/**
 * Returns the length of an associative array or object similar function to Array.length 
 * 
 * @param $obj
 * @return int
 * 
 */
public static function __getAssociativeArraySize($obj:Object):int {
	var length:int = 0; /* the length counter to be returned */
	if ($obj != {} || $obj != null) { /* check if the object is null or has no elements and return zero as the length */
		for (var s:String in $obj) { /* iterate on each element of the object and increase the counter */
			length++;
		}
	}
 
	return length; /* return the length*/
}