How can I use a variable to define other variables ?

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1

I have searched everywhere for a solution to this seemingly simply problem to no avail. Maybe I am using the wrong terms in my search.

The following code sets 4 numeric variables to 0 when “sel” is either “instrument”, “gnss”, “surveyor2”, or “rt4”. Notice the comparators and the first part of the variable names are the same. I have several places in my code where I make similar comparisons. The way I did it works, but it seems to be a brute force way of doing it. I did it this way because I could not figure out how to use a variable name on the left side of the equation when setting or using such variables. I hope I have described this well enough to understand what I am trying to do.

Is there a better, more efficient way to do this?

if (sel === “instrument” ) {
instrumentOptionHits = 0 ;

} else if (sel === “gnss” ) {
gnssOptionHits = 0 ;

} else if (sel === “surveyor2” ){
surveyor2OptionHits = 0 ;

} else if (sel === “rt4” ) {
rt4OptionHits = 0 ;

}

2

The JS switch statement would be a more efficient way to do this.

 switch (sel) {
    case "instrument":
        instrumentOptionHits = 0;
        break;
    case "gnss":
        gnssOptionHits = 0;
        break;
    case "surveyor2":
        surveyor2OptionHits = 0;
        break;
    case "rt4":
        rt4OptionHits = 0;
        break;
}
3

Thanks for your idea, which I am sure will work. However I am trying to avoid having to maintain several such "switch"es using the same list of the 4 literals. The 4 will be growing to 8 to 10 so that solution will require me to maintain all 8 to 10 of the switches frequently. The list really needs to be driven by a single list of all 8 to 10 items.

I am thinking now that creating my own JSON object filtering on the item I am looking for might be the way to go. I have not explored the concept of using “return” but that might be another approach. Any thoughts on using either?

4

@jimyaccino
Perhaps you could generate it like this…

myArrayX = ["instrument", "gnss", "surveyor2", "rt4"]
myArrayY = ["instrumentOptionHits","gnssOptionHits","surveyor2OptionHits","rt4OptionHits"]

if (sel === myArrayX[0]) { 
    instrumentOptionHits = 0;
} 
for (var i=1;i<10;i++) {
 else if (sel === myArrayX[i]) {
        myArrayY[i] = 0;
    }
}