How can I use the content of a variable to call another variable?
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I'm confronted with the following problem:
eur2usd =[ 1.3 1.2 1.1];
eur2cad =[0.8 0.9 0.7];
currency = 'eur2usd'
I would like to use the variable currency to call the content of eur2usd ([ 1.3 1.2 1.1]). So that if currency = 'eur2cad', I can call the content of eur2cad by using the variable currency.
2 Comments
Adam
on 18 Aug 2014
I would favour coming up with a solution which didn't require you to do that. e.g. having currency be a function handle rather than a raw variable-name string, or using containers.Map or some kind of array to index into.
But if you are set on having a variable name in a string I'm sure someone can soon furnish you with the appropriate eval-based syntax.
Stephen23
on 4 Jan 2015
Edited: Stephen23
on 12 Sep 2023
Basically you should not do this.
Using dynamically defined variable names or encoding data within the variable name is a pretty bad approach:
You should probably be using for your data: structures. This shows how it could work:
>> A = struct('eur2usd',[ 1.3 1.2 1.1],'eur2cad',[0.8 0.9 0.7]);
>> A.('eur2cad')
ans = [0.8,0.9,0.7]
Note that using a structure is extendable to any number of currencies without cluttering-up your workspace with a thousand variables. There is also a large selection of tools that you can use to manipulate structures, their fields and contents:
Summary: do not use eval to encode (meta-)data into the variable names!
Accepted Answer
Andrew Reibold
on 18 Aug 2014
Edited: Andrew Reibold
on 18 Aug 2014
eval(currency)
or
eval('eur2usd')
etc
1 Comment
Image Analyst
on 4 Jan 2015
David's "Answer" moved here since it'a not an Answer to the origianl question but a reply to Andrew
Thanks!
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