From: Aaron Patterson <aaron_patterson@...>
Date: 2007-02-20T09:59:55+09:00
Subject: Re: Strange question:   Convert string to array name

On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 09:20:13AM +0900, kenbo wrote:
> I am coming to Ruby from LISP where I was more competent when it came
> to symbol
> manipulation :-)   I have spent some time trying to solve this problem
> and figure it's my
> general lack of deep knowledge ala Ruby that keeps me from seeing an
> "easy" solution.
> 
> With that said, I apologize if this has been answered and I missed
> it.
> 
> I have a string in a variable.
> foo = "bobo"
> 
> I want to use foo to access an array called bobo.   I will have bobo
> defined already.
> 
> Is there a way to do this?

eval() might be what you're looking for.  You can use eval to return the
array then index in to it.  Here's an example from:

irb(main):001:0> awesome_array = %w{ one two three four five }
=> ["one", "two", "three", "four", "five"]
irb(main):002:0> foo = 'awesome_array'
=> "awesome_array"
irb(main):003:0> puts eval(foo)[1]
two
=> nil
irb(main):004:0>

Hope that helps!

-- 
Aaron Patterson
http://tenderlovemaking.com/