Is it possible to dynamically name variables based off user input?

Question

I've recently started working on a project in C# that requires the user to create as many instances of a class as they'd like. I've thought about two different ways to go about this.

1: Use a list of string arrays that contains the information held by the class. By this I mean when they create an instance of the class the data goes to a list so that I can re-use the same variable name.

// Initiating the class
dataSet1D currDataSet = new dataSet1D();
dataSet1D.name = txtName.Text;
dataSet1.length = Int32.Parse(txtIndex.Text);

// Creating the list of arrays
List<string[]> arrayList = new List<string[]>();
string[] strArray = new string[2];
strArray[0] = "name";
strArray[1] = "lengthAsString";
arrayList.Add(strArray);

(That was just some quick mock-up code, I'll obviously use better variable names on my actual project)

2: I could use dynamically named variables If they enter what they want as a name, I can name the instance that.

dataSet1D <dynamically named variable name> = new dataSet1D();

Not sure what you are asking here. Are you asking how to create a bunch of classes and then retrieve them by some user specified name? — Robert Moskal
– Robert Moskal, Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 23:52
"dynamically named variables" is not a thing in C#. How would you write code, at compile-time, that refers to these variables, which are named at runtime? — Blorgbeard
– Blorgbeard, Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 23:53
Instead, you should look up the Dictionary<TKey, TValue> class. — Blorgbeard
– Blorgbeard, Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 23:53
I can't imagine why would someone need dynamically named variables.. This sounds like you are doing something very wrong if this is what you are looking for. Can you expand a bit on your problem? — limbo
– limbo, Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 23:55
Welcome to Stack Overflow Xander! Have a look through @Blorgbeard's edits, and see what could be improved in future questions. Thanks/Taglines are discouraged as they clutter the post, as well as irrelevant information that don't pertain to the question (Things like "I'm new at this"). — Blue
– Blue, Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 23:59

Hasson · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-11 00:46:25Z

2

You can creat a dictionary which maps the name of the "variable" to the actual calss instance, or you can create a List which has all your instances and they have an index in this case rather than a name.

edited Aug 11, 2016 at 0:46

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 23:56

Hasson

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Ashkan S · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-11 00:13:15Z

0

If you need lots of instances of 1 class, you can just have a list of that class. Like this:

class MyClass
{
   public string Name {set;get;}
   // property2 , etc
}

var myList = new List<MyClass>();
myList.Add(new MyClass());

Other than this, I have to mention that variable names has nothing to do with the run-time. when you build your code, they will all change to pointers to space that contains the data.

Variable name is only a handler for programmers to let them work with their objects

edited Aug 11, 2016 at 0:13

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 23:56

Ashkan S

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Jay T · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-11 00:22:25Z

0

You could create add a string property to the class which would hold the name the user specifies for each object. Then, as a new instance of each object is created, add it to a List as others have suggested. Finally when you need to access an instance by the user defined name, use a LINQ expression to retrieve it.

public class MyClass
{
    public string UserDefinedName { get; set; }
    public int Length { get; set; }
    ... Other member variables
}

public List<MyClass> UserCreatedObjects { get; set;}

Then to get an instance which was named, say "my_object_1" use LINQ:

var theInstance = UserCreatedObjects.Where(o => o.UserDefinedName == "my_object_1").FirstOrDefault();

answered Aug 11, 2016 at 0:22

Jay T

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