C programming: Using a variable inside another variable name (not sure of the technical term)

Question

I don't know what the technical term is but I would like to do following:

int var_a;
int var_b;
int var_c;
char letter;

letter = 'b';
printf("%d", var_'letter');

However, I don't want to use if statements. Can I directly sub in the rest of the variable name with the variable char so that the computer would see "var_b"?

A term for this is 'dynamic variable name', which C does not support. — user2864740
– user2864740, Commented Jan 31, 2016 at 23:34

Michael Albers · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-31 23:31:50Z

6

Not possible. You could try using an array and indexing it like this:

vars[letter - 'a'];

Where vars[0] would correspond to your var_a and so on.

answered Jan 31, 2016 at 23:31

Michael Albers

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2 Comments

DaoWen Over a year ago

I was going to post something similar. It might be better to declare an enum to use for the index rather than using character literals. E.g., enum my_vars { A, B, C }; vars[A];

William Over a year ago

thanks, i was hoping dynamic vars were allowed in C, guess not.

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