Associative table index using a variable?

[Buffman]

Hi Everyone,

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but I couldn't find it searching through the forums. How can I create a table index using a variable? Here's an example:

sIndex = "Anderson";
sValue = "Jason";

arrNames.sIndex = sValue; or arrNames = {sIndex=sValue};

will result in "arrNames.sIndex" rather than "arrNames.Anderson"

I thought I could get away with Table.Insert, but it only works for numeric arrays.

How can I dynamically create an associative array using variables?

[azmanar]

Hi,

A few ways to define table arrays.

METHOD 1:

arrNames = {anderson="johnson"};

--therefore making it into a variable:

sName = arrNames.anderson;

resultant : sName = johnson


METHOD 2:

arrNames = {};
arrNames[1] = {anderson="johnson"};

--- therefore making it into a variable:

sName = arrNames[1];

resultant : sName = johnson

--------------- so if I choose METHOD 1----------------

--define variables

sIndex = "anderson";
sValue = "johnson";

arrNames = { sIndex = sValue }

-- making it into another variable

sName = arrNames.sIndex;

resultant : sName = johnson

[Lorne]

You can also do

sIndex = "anderson";
sValue = "johnson";

arrNames[sIndex] = sValue;

[Buffman]

Thanks Azmanar,

Here's the problem I'm running into though. Working off your examples (method1 in this case), when I do this:

for index, value in arrNames do
     Dialog.Message("", "Index is: "..index);
     Dialog.Message("", "Value is: "..value);
end

the value is fine, but I'll get "Index is: sIndex" instead of "Index is: Anderson". Does this make sense?

[Buffman]

You can also do

sIndex = "anderson";
sValue = "johnson";

arrNames[sIndex] = sValue;

Ahhh Thanks Lorne, that worked. I thought []'s were for numeric arrays only, but it works for associative arrays too! Yay!

[azmanar]

Sorry. I was wrong about METHOD 2.

METHOD 2:

Should be:

arrNames = {};
arrNames[1] = {"johnson"};
sName = arrNames[1];

RESULTANT : sName = johnson

and if I want to nest it further, it should be

Should be:

arrNames = {};
arrNames[1] = {anderson = "johnson"};
sName = arrNames[1].anderson;

RESULTANT : sName = johnson


Attached is an APZ for your reference.