Change string to variable (sort of)

Question

Hi. I am making a game in flash which requires lots of
similar functions, such as
function getSomeNumber():Number{
return number;
I was wondering if i could generalize this by doing the
following. take a parameter of string defining the name of the
variable. i then want to change this string to the name of the
variable so that i can output the value of the variable. a bit like
this
function getSomeNumber(nameOfVar:String):Number{
//somehow use string to find out variable name and return
value of variable
return unknown;
hope this makes sense.
trigger2160

Answer 1

@kglad: yeah, I see what you're saying there kg, but I think
he's just wanting a return from a previously created list of
variable references. I'm not sure why he wouldn't call them
directly, but I think it has something to do with the user input
from his system being in the form of a String, so he wasn't able to
access the value of the var named similarly ... but I follow you,
and I guess I should have even simplified the return as ...
return this[nameOfVar];
... rather than setting up the extra reference in the
function, but your method is the way to go for constructing a new
variable from an input String and value, and I love the wildcard
use here, didn't know that would work, cool.
OH, but hey (@trigger also) if the variable already exists,
one should be able to reference it directly by calling ...
this['something'];
... and if you've got a function which is gathering the input
you could say ...
value = this[input];
... if 'input' is in the form of a string, and it should
return the value of the variable, without having to call to a
function, right? that's what you're saying by 'just use it
directly', I got it now :)