ActionScript 3.0 :: Stripping Variable Between Sub Classes?

I was just wondering if this is possible and the best way to achieve the following.I have 3 classes. One base class and 2 subclasses. eg MyShape, Square, Circle. The Circle and Square classes both override the MyShape's assignProperties method which takes a string as its argument.What I do in this method is loop through a serialized string and assign variables.So the string looks something like p:10|x:200|f:300Because some of the properties are generic to the MyShape class I have the Circle and Square assignProperties call super.assignProperties()Now this all works great but I realised I'm going to get some repitition calling it at each level.

So I was thinking is it possible to get the supers.assignProperties to strip a property from the string if it is found before the assignProperties in the Circle and Square class is called.Here is sort of what I have with a little pseudo codeSquare Class assignProperties Method

PHP Code:
assignProperties(_properties:String) {
var properties:Array = _properties.split('|');

[code].....