From: Morton Goldberg <m_goldberg@...>
Date: 2007-07-24T06:52:00+09:00
Subject: Re: Variable Generation

On Jul 23, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Ari Brown wrote:

> yes, I mean spontaneously generated variables.
>
> Assume we have an array:
> 	array = %w(yea cool awesome stuff)
> Now, I'm looking to make a variable corresponding to the item. so  
> that:
>
> yea = "yea"
> cool = "cool"
> awesome = "awesome"
> stuff = "stuff"
>
> My current method (which FAILS) is using eval
> array.each {|item| eval(item + "=\"#{item}\"") }
>
> I tested this with a puts instead of eval, and it comes out exactly  
> as it should. But when I try to use the variable, I get a undefined  
> local variable or method error.

Your problem likely results from the scoping rules for local  
variables. I think it would work as you expect if you used global or  
instance variables. However, for this kind of thing, I usually prefer  
a hash. You might consider using something like:

WORDS = %w(yea cool awesome stuff)
DICTIONARY = {}
WORDS.each { |w| DICTIONARY[w.to_sym] = w }
DICTIONARY[:cool] # => "cool"

Regards, Morto