Accessing the value of a variable by its name as string in Java

Question

I have a string containing the variable name. I want to get the value of that variable.

int temp = 10;
String temp_name = "temp";

Is it possible to access the value 10 by using temp_name?

Why? For what reason? What purpose are you trying to accomplish? — user207421
– user207421, Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 0:23

aioobe · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-21 15:30:14Z

11

I suggest that you use a Map<String, Integer> instead:

Create the map by doing

Map<String, Integer> values = new HashMap<String, Integer>();

Then change

int temp = 10;

to

values.put("temp", 10);

and access the value using

int tempVal = values.get(temp_name);

answered Jun 21, 2012 at 15:30

aioobe

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2 Comments

Erick Robertson Over a year ago

+1 This is a better solution to the problem, and there should be no reason why you cannot take this approach.

Andrew Thompson Over a year ago

@ErickRobertson I agree. Reflection is a solution to a 'not ordinary' need, whereas a newbie is typically needing a map or associative array.

Erick Robertson · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-21 15:28:32Z

10

Make the variable a member variable and use reflection.

You cannot get the value by name of a variable unless it's a member variable of a class. Then you can use the java.lang.reflect package to retrieve the value.

answered Jun 21, 2012 at 15:28

Erick Robertson

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