How to get name of variable passed to method

Question

How can I get the name of the variable that's passed into a method, in the method?
for instance: the following code prints an array to a text file, and includes the name of the array in the name of hte text file. So, to call it, I have to do this:
printarray(myArray, "myArray")
so that the text "myArray" gets passed in & used in teh fileNM output.
This is inelegant, and I'd like to just call it like this:
printarray(myArray)
and have the method extract that name.
void printarray(String printstuff[], String arrayname) throws Exception
    String fileNM = "arrayprint_" + arrayname +".txt";
    FileWriter printme = new FileWriter(fileNM);
    String newline = System.getProperty("line.separator");
        String tab = "\t";
    for (int i = 0; i<printstuff.length; i++)
        printme.write(i + tab + printstuff[i]  + newline);
    printme.close();
    } // end printarray

Answer 1

Let me try to put this in different words and see if I convince you...
I think you are getting confused between variable names that you use refer a variable within your class and "names" that you associate with a variable based on the data it holds.... In your example
String[] myArray;here 'myArray' is the name of the reference to the variable printstuff[]. When you call the method
printarray(myArray) a copy of this reference is passed to that method.
But you also want to pass another variable that represents the description of the array (which you are referring to as the name). In this case one of the ways of doing this what you had pointed out which is
printarray(myArray, "myArray");If you don't like this and think its inefficient you should do a bit of reading on the basics of what a variable is, what a reference to a variable etc. Alternativel you can define your own class that convinces you like
public class MyArray
      private String[] myArray;
      private String myArrayName;
      public MyArray(String myArrayName, String[] myArray)
                  this.myArrayName=  myArrayName;
                  this.myArray = myArray;
      public String[] getArray()
                return myArray;
      public String getName()
                  return myArrayName;
}Edited by: deepak_1your.com on 17-Apr-2008 14:12