Question

I have an array of elements and I want to use the elements in the array as variables.

I want to do this because I have an equation, the equation requires multiple variable inputs, and I want to initialize an array, iterate through it, and request input for each variable (or each element of the array).

So I have an array like this:

String variableArray[] = {"a", "b", "c"}

And now I’m iterating through this array and getting the input from the user:

for(int i=0; i<3; i++) {
    System.out.printf("Enter value for %s: ", variableArray[i]);
    int variableArray[i] = keysIn.nextInt();
}

The problem is this line doesn’t compile:

int variableArray[i] = keysIn.nextInt();

In essence, I want to use the elements of the array variableArray[] (i.e. a, b, and c) as variables so I don’t have to do the same process for each variable. I can’t imagine how it’s done when there are many variables to input (I wouldn’t want to type that all out).

tl;dr I want to streamline the process of inputting values for multiple variables.

Answer 1

Please use with caution, but after reading your comments to the other answers, you might get a little closer to the way you want it using reflection:

import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class VariableInput {
   public static class Input {
     public int a;
     public int b;
     public int c;
   }

   public static void main(String[] args) throws IllegalArgumentException,
       IllegalAccessException {
      Scanner keysIn = new Scanner(System.in);
      Field[] fields = Input.class.getDeclaredFields();
      Input in = new Input();
      for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
         System.out.printf("Enter value for %s: ", fields[i].getName());
         fields[i].set(in, keysIn.nextInt());
      }
      int d = in.a + in.b + in.c;
      System.out.println("d=" + d);
   }
}