How to declare a variable named after the value of another variable in Objective C [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Syntax help - Variable as object name

I have a very basic beginner's question in Objective C:

I'd like to declare a variable that is named after the content/value/literal of another variable. How can I do that?

I.e.

NSString *s = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"variableName"];

// now create a second variable that is named after the literal in s

int *s = 42; // This is what doesn't work. The integer-type variable should be named variableName

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks for the answers so far. The reason why I am asking this questions is the following:

I have an array containing values I load from an xml file structured as follows:

<string>name</string><integer>23</integer><real>3.232</real><real>4.556</real> ... (44 times another real number)<string>nextName</string>...(and so on).

The file contains the names for MKPolygons, the number of points for each polygon and the latitude and logitude values for each point of the polygon. I managed to load the file and have its content in an array. Now I want to create MKPolygons from this array which are named as the strings in the array.

What are you really trying to do?

Adam Rosenfield
– Adam Rosenfield

2012-08-20 22:50:17 +00:00
Commented Aug 20, 2012 at 22:50 — Adam Rosenfield
– Adam Rosenfield, Commented Aug 20, 2012 at 22:50

Bryan Wolfford · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-20 22:48:51Z

5

What you are looking for is a hash table. You can use NSDictionary or NSMutableDictionary or NSHashTable.

Here is an example:

NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[dict setObject:anObj forKey:@"foo"];
[dict objectForKey:@"foo"];
[dict removeObjectForKey:@"foo"];
[dict release];

answered Aug 20, 2012 at 22:48

Bryan Wolfford

2,2023 gold badges21 silver badges26 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Marc W · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-20 22:46:57Z

0

This is not possible in Objective-C, nor in most mainstream languages (save for PHP). What are you trying to accomplish with this?

answered Aug 20, 2012 at 22:46

Marc W

19.3k4 gold badges63 silver badges71 bronze badges

2 Comments

danqing Over a year ago

lol you are 4 secs faster than me..

Bryan Wolfford Over a year ago

It is very possible with a hashmap, otherwise known as an associative array.

danqing · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-20 22:46:59Z

0

I don't think you can do it. However, you can create an NSDictionary and create a key called variableName and a value called 42. (an NSNumber). Then whenever you want to retrieve this value, you can just do valueForKey.

answered Aug 20, 2012 at 22:46

danqing

3,7082 gold badges32 silver badges44 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to declare a variable named after the value of another variable in Objective C [duplicate]

3 Answers 3

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Linked

Related