Question

I would like to be able to reference an array by using a string, as such:

var arrayName = "people";

var people = [
    'image47.jpeg',
    'image48.jpeg',
    'image49.jpeg',
    'image50.jpeg',
    'image52.jpeg',
    'image53.jpeg',
    'image54.jpeg',
    'image55.jpeg',
]

function myFunc (arrayName)
{
    //arrayName is actually just a string that evaluates to "people", which then in turn would reference the var people, which is passed in.
}

Any thoughts on how to do this? Sorry if I’m missing something obvious.

Answer 1

You can simply create a global dictionary, like this:

var people = ['image47.jpeg', 'image48.jpeg'];
var cars = ['image3.png', 'image42.gif'];
var global_arrays = {
    people: people,
    cars: cars
};

function myFunc(arrayName) {
   var ar = global_arrays[arrayName];
   // Do something with ar
}

Note that the first line of myFunc makes it clear that this is just a complicated way of having myFunc accept the array itself in the first place. I strongly suggest that you do just that, like this:

function myFunc(ar) {
   // Do something with ar
}
myFunc(people);

This means that your code will be reusable by anyone else (say, a third-party plugin that wants to render giraffes) and not require any global variables.