Can a variable name determined by array value in a for-loop?

Question

Is it possible to use an array variable value as a new variable name in a for-loop (or in other words, can the left-hand side of an equation be determined by a pre-defined value in an iteration)?

for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
    // we all know this is possible:
    blabla[i] = apple;
    // but I'm wondering if there's a way we can achieve this:
    example(someVar);
}

function example(name) {
   // [name] = banana;
   name = banana;
}

Obviously, the way I'm doing this in the snippet above, the value banana is always getting assigned to the variable name. Not too sure though how I could go about this?

Please clarify what you actually want to achieve. It's not clear from your example. What would be the point of assigning a random variable (_banana_) to a local variable (_name_) in a function? And what is _someVar_ (you provide zero context whatsoever for _banana_ and _someVar_). — jahroy, Jun 24 '13 at 06:22
Maybe I should have asked this question differently. Basically what I want is to able to do something like `eval(someVar) = someValue`. Is that possible? @jahroy — AKG, Jun 24 '13 at 06:28
That doesn't make sense. You should have a variable on the left side of an assignment statement. Looks like you figured it out, though. — jahroy, Jun 24 '13 at 18:36

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 24 '13 at 06:30

Variables are properties, either of the global object (in a browser: window) or of some other object. So you can do:

for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
   window[array[i]] = '[something]';
}

or

var someObj = {};
for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
   someObj[array[i]] = '[something]';
}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 24 '13 at 06:48

function myVar(val) {
this.value=val;
}

var array=new Array( new myVar(1),new myVar(2),new myVar(3));

for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
    example(array[i]);
    alert(array[i].value); // now they are 0,0,0
}

function example(name) {
   name.value = 0;
}

Can a variable name determined by array value in a for-loop?

2 Answers2