How to find the value variable

Question

Hi, I am doing looping and dynamically creating the variable, after this, I will get the string that is the variable. In this stage how can I get the variable value.
For Example, pls look into the follow proc
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE VALUE_TEST AS
MYSTRING1     VARCHAR2(100);
MYSTRING2     VARCHAR2(100);
A     VARCHAR2(100);
B     VARCHAR2(100);
BEGIN
     MYSTRING1     := 'FIRST VALUE';
     MYSTRING2     := 'SECOND VALUE';
     FOR I IN 1..5 LOOP
          A := 'MYSTRING' || I;
          B := 'MYSTRING' || I;
          DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(A || ' ' ||B);
     END LOOP;     
END;
When I print the value of A, I should get the value of MYSTRING1, that is 'FIRST VALUE'.
If anybody know, how to do that, pls let me know ASAP.
Thanx a lot.
Vijay.P

Answer 1

Hi Vijaykumar...
In A := 'MYSTRING' || I; you are NOT replacing your variable named 'A' with the variable named 'MYSTRING' concatenated to the value of the loop counter.
You are replacing you variable named 'A' with a character string 'MYSTRING' concatenated to the value of the loop counter. The confusion may come from the fact that the name of the variable is a character string that is identical to the character string in your replacement statement.
So you get...
MYSTRING1 MYSTRING1
MYSTRING2 MYSTRING2
MYSTRING3 MYSTRING3
&....The PL/SQL compiler intreprets the characters between the 's as a character string.
To get...
FIRST VALUE1 FIRST VALUE1
FIRST VALUE2 FIRST VALUE2
FIRST VALUE3 FIRST VALUE3
&....remove the ' so the PL/SQL compiler will reconize it as a named variable.
If you are trying to construct a variable name using concatenation, that cannot be done in PL/SQL without dynamic sql, a somewhat more complicated endeavor.
Good luck. Hope this helps.