referencing a variable using concatenation C#

Question

I have a number of variables such as

int foo1;
int foo2;
int foo3;
int foo4;

Now, I have a for loop, going from var x = 0 to 3 (for the 4 variables), and i would like to use x to call the variables like this:

for(int x = 0; x < 4; x++)
{
    foo+x = bar;
}

so that when x = 1, then my variable foo1 will be assigned the value bar (foo+x = bar == foo1 = bar when x = 1).

Is there any way of doing this in C# or should I take an alternative approach?

Answer 1

This is not possible, unless you wanted to use Reflection, which would not be the best approach. without knowing what you are trying to achieve, it is a little difficult to answer, but you could create an array to hold your variables and then use x as an indexer to access them

for(int x = 0; x < 4; x++)
{
    fooarr[x] = bar;
}

Answer 2

It's hard to judge what would be the best approach in your particular case, but it's most likely not the good approach. Do you absolutely need 4 VARIABLES, or only 4 values. A simple list, array, or dictionary would do the job:

int[] array = new int[4];
List<int> list = new List<int>(4);
List<int, int> dictionary1 = new Dictionary<int, int>(4);
List<string, int> dictionary2 = new Dictionary<string, int>(4);

for(int x = 0; x < 4; x++)
{
    array[x] = bar;
    list[x] = bar;
    dictionary1.Add(x, bar);
    dictionary2.Add("foo" + x.ToString(), bar);
}

Answer 3

Could you do something like this:

var listVariables = new Dictionary<string, int>
                    {
                        { "foo1", 1 },
                        { "foo2", 2 },
                        { "foo3", 3 },
                        { "foo4", 4 },
                    };

for (int x = 1; x <= 4; x++)
{
   listVariables["foo" + x] = bar;
}

Answer 4

Perhaps an alternative approach would be better ;-)

int[] foo;

// create foo

for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
  foo[i] = value;
}

Answer 5

If at all possible, you should use an array that contains four integers. You can declare it like so:

int[] foos = new int[4];

Then, in your loop, you should change to the following:

for(int i=0;i<foos.Length;i++)
{
     // Sets the ith foo to bar. Note that array indexes start at 0!
     foos[i] = bar;
}

By doing this, you will still have four integers; you just access them with foos[n] , where n is the nth variable you want. Keep in mind that the first element of an array is at 0, so to get the 1st variable, you'll call foos[0] , and to access the 4th foo, you'll call foos[3]