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Re: Variable name to string [message #25868 is a reply to message #25780]

Wed, 18 July 2001 07:04

Craig Markwardt
Messages: 1869
Registered: November 1996

Senior Member

Chad Bender <cbender@mail.astro.sunysb.edu> writes:

> Hello-
>
> Can anyone please point me towards the solution of the following
> problem?
>
> Say I want to create a program that will write the contents of a named
> array to a
> file of the same name. This could be accomplished by having the program
> prompt
> the user for both the variable name (getting the array by reference) and
> the file name
> (getting the string naming the output file), and the user just puts the
> same
> thing twice. However, I would like to be able to do it so the user only
> has one prompt.

This appears to be basic string manipulation, which can be
accomplished using the "+" symbol.

;; Get variable name.
varname = ''
read, varname

;; Derive file name from variable name
filename = varname + '.dat'

Now, as the others have pointed out, the harder question is really,
how do you get at a variable for which you only have the name?
EXECUTE can work if the variable and your code are at the same level.
For example, this code

return_code = execute('DATA = '+varname)

will put the data into a variable named DATA. Also, sneaky use of
ROUTINE_NAMES can do it. But honestly, you should try to re-work your
concept so you don't have to do that if you can.

Craig

--
------------------------------------------------------------ --------------
Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D. EMAIL: craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu
Astrophysics, IDL, Finance, Derivatives | Remove "net" for better response
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[Message index]

		Variable name to string By: Chad Bender on Tue, 17 July 2001 13:50
		Re: Variable name to string By: Chad Bender on Wed, 18 July 2001 12:32
		Re: Variable name to string By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Wed, 18 July 2001 08:52
		Re: Variable name to string By: Craig Markwardt on Wed, 18 July 2001 07:04
		Re: Variable name to string By: R.Bauer on Wed, 18 July 2001 06:16

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