LiveCode Forums.

I know I've asked this before, but can't recall the answer.

If I have a local variable that contains a string which is the name of another variable, how do I get at the contents of the inner variable?

put 5 into variable1
put "variable1" into variable2

I want to get "5" from variable2. I tried value(variable2), but that of course gives me "variable1", unless it is a system global preceded with a dollar sign, as in:

put "$APPDATA" into variable2

value(variable2) returns "C:\Users\Walt\AppData\Roaming".

Thanks. I know this is a "Well dur" question, I'm just drawing a blank.

Hi Walt,

although holding variable names in other variables is not really recommended unless avoidably,
you can make this via a DO statement!
...
put 5 into variable1
put "variable1" into variable2
do ("put" && variable2 && "into variable3")
put variable3
## Will put 5 into variable3
...
A bit cumbersome, but works


Best

Klaus

Thanks. I had blanked on the "do" statement.
Walt

I don't think you need "do". This works for me:

on testvar
put 5 into var1
put var1 into var2
put var2
end testvar

Leave off the quotes and the value is used instead of the variable name.

Thanks Jacque. I'm not just transfering contents between two variables though, I want to send the name of the variable to another script for parsing.