actionscript 3 - Distance between two points

Question

Is there any difference between:

distance = point1.subtract(point2).length;

and

distance = Point.distance(point1, point2);

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I don't know much about ActionScript, but this is what I'd think the difference is:

point1.subtract(point2) probably creates some vector object that represents the vector from point2 to point1. Obviously, the distance between the points is the length of that vector.

I could imagine that the first line would be less efficient than the second line, because in the first line a temporary vector object is created, which is only needed because you need the length of the vector. In the second line, no temporary object needs to be made - the distance between the points is probably calculated from the coordinates of the points directly.