CODEWITHSUNDEEP
stringvariablescode-generationnaming-conventions
user1626604
user1626604

Reputation: 1

Naming Vars with strings

Can a variable be named with a string or character array, in any language? Basically I want something like:

Var_String = "varname"
Var_String as double

And then I could fill the double varname. If it helps im trying to make a program that can declare variables on the fly, while running. Even if thats not possible, I am open to workarounds even if they're impractical, although I would prefer that workarounds be in VB6, C++, or PHP, because I know those languages already, but they dont have to be.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 62

Answers (2)

Qsario
Qsario

Reputation: 1026

The usual way to do something like this is called a hash. You store name/value pairs and given the name, can look up its value. You can generally define them to store any sort of object. In fact, in some languages, objects themselves are essentially hashes with a few extra properties.

You can find more information on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table

Upvotes: 1

Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa

Reputation: 5967

Javascript is completely capable of declaring variable names on the fly. A javascript object can be treated "associatively" as a dictionary. Observe:

var testyObject = function()
{
    Awesome = "hello";
};

var myObject = new testyObject();

alert(myObject.Awesome); // creates an alert window that says hello
alert(myObject['Awesome']); // the same as above
myObject[myObject.Awesome] = "woo!"; // We just created a property on the object with the name "hello"
alert(myObject.hello); // creates an alert window that says "woo!"

I also believe you can add them to your immediate scope rather than as properties on other objects by using this["whatever you want it named"] = "woo!"; but I'm not certain, someone can correct me on that if such does not work.

You can read more about associative arrays at http://www.quirksmode.org/js/associative.html

Upvotes: 1

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