I have an array full of Strings:
foodToUse = ["berries", "cake", "crab"];

I want to display their corresponding movieClips (who's linkages are set to
"berries, "cake", and "crab") using the array

for (var i = 0; i<3; i++)
{
tmpString = foodToUse;
attachMovie(tmpString, tmpString+i, i, {_x: _root.x, _y: 400});
_root[tmpString+i].gotoAndPlay(2); //doesn't work! Only plays
frame 1.
_root.x = _root.x + 200;
//change x value so they don't overlap.
}

Now this works, however, the Movieclips all play frame 1 instead of frame 2.
Any help would be awesome.

I tested your code and it's working like I expected. Three movie clips display and animate as expected. You don't even need the gotoAndPlay to play the movie clips.

Brenda

Yes they do in fact display, and they play. If you'll read my post, that is
not my problem. I need to access the movieClip's properties and methods. The
code instructs the clips to gotoAndPlay frame 2. The result of that code is
that they play, but from frame 1 only.
I tried using _root[tmpString+i]._y = 500, and the clips _y value did not
change.

Again, they play fine, you are correct, but only they play from frame 1, not
frame 2. Any other suggestions?

Brenda's right, your code runs perfectly. Check to make sure you have the
right publishing settings (Flash 7, AS 2.0) and make sure you have stop();
commands on frame 2 or thereafter in each of the movie clips, otherwise it will
loop back to the beginning and look like it's starting on frame 1. I used only
the following code with three movie clips, each with an empty frame 1 with a
stop() and a circle in frame 2 with a stop, and running your code shows all
three circles -- so it's fine. Your problem is somewhere else.

foodToUse = ["berries", "cake", "crab"];
x = 0;
for (var i = 0; i<3; i++)
{
tmpString = foodToUse[i];
attachMovie(tmpString, tmpString+i, i, {_x: _root.x, _y: 400});
_root[tmpString+i].gotoAndPlay(2);
_root[tmpString+i]._y=0;
_root.x = _root.x + 200;
}

Thanks people, I do have stop(); 's in the Clips on frames 1 and 2, so it must be somewhere else, maybe I can post the code here after the weekend if the problem persists..