Question

I am trying to evaluate two dynamically assigned variables; then attempting to assign a dynamic variable based on the outcome.
I have much longer code where this works, but I am trying to consolidate.

Here is what I have for the consolidated code:

<cfloop list="dog,cat,pig,horse" index="i">      
    <cfif (#trim([i]_FMCTotal)# /2) GT #trim([i]_FMC)#>
        <cfset #i#colorCode = 'red'>
    <cfelseif (#trim([i]_FMCTotal)# /1.5) GT #trim([i]_FMC)#>
        <cfset #i#colorCode = 'yellow'>
    <cfelse>
        <cfset #i#colorCode = 'green'>
    </cfif>  
</cfloop>

Answer 1

Not much of the code you have posted would get through the parser as you have a few invalid CFML constructs such as [i]_FMCTotal which is not a valid variable name. Also your use of the hashes is not required within the conditional statements, the hashes are used for output.

To answer the question there is evaluate() but a far more readable, secure and maintainable solution would be to leverage a struct for the colour codes.

<cfset colorCodes = {}>
<!--- presuming ..._FMCTotal and .._FMC are reworked as structs also --->
<cfloop list="dog,cat,pig,horse" index="i">      
    <cfif (FMCTotal[i] /2) GT trim(FMC[i])>
        <cfset colorCode[i] = 'red'>
    <cfelseif (trim(FMCTotal[i] /1.5) GT trim(FMC[i])>
        <cfset colorCode[i] = 'yellow'>
    <cfelse>
        <cfset colorCode[i] = 'green'>
    </cfif>  
</cfloop>

The result of this would be a data structure from which you can easily access any of the items value in subsequent code

{ // possible result
    'pig': 'green'
  , 'cat': 'yellow'
  , 'dog': 'red'
  , 'horse': 'green'
}

colorCode['dog'] // => 'red'

If you don’t have access to rework the _FMC variables you could evaluate those evaluate('#i#_FMCTotal') but it would be far cleaner to use a collection for these also as in my example.