Efficiently navigating arrays and selected strings

Question

I am a noob playing around with actionscript but i feel this question is a basic coding questionMy project is similar to this picture.

I have four quadrant areas (Red, blue, yellow, and green) that I am adding text buttons to each area with a single word in each button. There are 16 words in each section that are added from 4 arrays that have the preset words (redWordArray, greenWordArray, yellowWordArray, blueWordArray). When clicked, the text button glows using a glow filter and the word gets added to another array for data collecting. For instance, a red word when clicked gets added to a red array (redChosenArray). When the word is clicked again, it removes the glow filter and is removed from the chosen array.

I am finding that my performance is slow and I am wondering if I am adding and deleting words correctly and efficiently. These are my functions for adding the glow filters and the selected word to the array. I would love your insights for best coding practices as I am sure it is a mess!

Thank you!

 


function selectWord(event:MouseEvent):void
{
    var tempWord:String = event.currentTarget.mood.text;
    var tempArray:Array;

if (event.currentTarget.clicked == false)
{
    event.currentTarget.filters = filterArray;
    event.currentTarget.clicked = true;
    tempArray = addToArray(tempWord)
    tempArray.push(tempWord);

    trace(redChosen);
    trace(blueChosen);
    trace(yellowChosen);
    trace(greenChosen);
    trace("");
}else if(event.currentTarget.clicked == true)
{
    event.currentTarget.filters = emptyFilterArray;
    event.currentTarget.clicked = false;
    removeMoodWord(tempWord);

    trace(redChosen);
    trace(blueChosen);
    trace(yellowChosen);
    trace(greenChosen);
    trace("");
}
}

function addToArray(moodWord:String):Array
{
    var wordFound:Boolean = false;
    var allWords:int = 16;
    var chosenArray:Array;

while (!wordFound)
{
    for (var h:int = 0; h < allWords; h++)
    {
            if (moodWord == redWords[h])
            {
                chosenArray = redChosen;
                wordFound = true;
            }else if (moodWord == yellowWords[h])
            {
                chosenArray = yellowChosen
                wordFound = true;
            }else if (moodWord == greenWords[h])
            {
                chosenArray = greenChosen
                wordFound = true;
            }else if (moodWord == blueWords[h])
            {
                chosenArray = blueChosen
                wordFound = true;
            }
    }
}
return chosenArray;
}

function removeMoodWord(moodWord:String):void
{
if (redChosen.indexOf(moodWord) >= 0)
{
    redChosen.splice(redChosen.indexOf(moodWord), 1);
}else if (blueChosen.indexOf(moodWord) >= 0)
{
    blueChosen.splice(blueChosen.indexOf(moodWord), 1);
}else if (yellowChosen.indexOf(moodWord) >= 0)
{
    yellowChosen.splice(yellowChosen.indexOf(moodWord), 1);
}else if (greenChosen.indexOf(moodWord) >= 0)
{
    greenChosen.splice(greenChosen.indexOf(moodWord), 1);
}
i fee}