From what I've read, it should be possible to use dynamic variable names in KM. I'm not sure that's what I want, but let me explain what I'm trying to do, and hopefully someone can help.
I have a subroutine that references a certain variable name quite a few times, in statements like this:
Set variable localMathTest to localSomeNumber - permvarStoredNumberForX
Set variable localOtherTest to localOtherNumber * permvarStoredNumberForX
etc.
The bit I'm interested in being dynamic is permvarStoredNumberForX. I need to copy this particular subroutine into many macros, and the permanent storage variable needs to be unique in each version of the subroutine.
As it stands now, I have to manually edit each step that references permvarStoredNumberForX. What I'd like to do is this:
Set variable instanceWorkingNumber to '%Variable%permvarStoredNumberForX%'
Then, the various statements would look like this:
Set variable localMathTest to localSomeNumber - instanceWorkingNumber
Set variable localOtherTest to localOtherNumber * instanceWorkingNumber
When I then copy and paste the subroutine to other macros, I'd only have to edit the first Set statement; all the rest would "just work." I have read, but had no luck implementing, the dynamic names section of the Set Variable to Text help file.
Thanks Chris…but I'm afraid my simple brain can't translate that into what I'm trying to accomplish. Your macro seems to be storing the results of a regex into a sequence of variables, with the names not known in advance.
I know the name I want to use; I'd just like to assign it in one spot, then reference it in many others.
While thinking about this, I came up with the "oh duh!" solution, but I'd still like to know how to do this in general as it seems useful. It'd be great to just create a variable name once, then have it magically appear where needed in the macro.
My workaround was realizing this is a subroutine, and I can pass it things and return things. So I pass it permvarStoredNumberForX, and then that turns into a localForSubroutineUse variable. When done, I pass back the localForSubroutineUse value and store it in permvarStoredNumberForX.
Works great, and I can set the variable once in the calling macro and that's that ... but still, I'd love to see a working example of how to just refer to one variable name through use of another.
Never mind, I was being dense. I believe all I needed to do was this, in pseudocode...
$permVar = 6
$tempVar = $permVar
Then use $tempVar everywhere in the code, and I'd only ever have to change the first two lines when I change the variable name. As usual (sigh), I was making the problem much tougher than it had to be.
With that said, the pass/return solution with the subroutine is even better than this, as I only have to change it in one spot.
The thing I was getting stuck on is that I have to read a permanent variable, and so when I first wrote that, that's just what I referred to in all my formulas. But yes, reading it to an instance variable, then using that in all the formulas, would've been the way to do it (before I figured out the subroutine return bit).
