Re: Newbie question # 2

[Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>]

Ian Douglas <ian@vionia.com> writes:

> In PHP, let's say we have a variable $fruit which contains the string
> "banana".
>
> In PHP, if I do $$fruit, then it creates a variable $banana, which I
> can then do things with.
>
> Does Ada support any such concept of taking the contents of one
> variable and using THAT as a variable?
>
> I'm reading in a file which has a name of an object followed by some
> properties so I want to use the name as a variable ...  File is
> something I created, so it's not some random stuff, and the variables
> will be existing already.

I'd think of a record type to contain the properties, and then a map
from object name to properties:

   type Properties is record
      Length : Positive;
      Width  : Positive;
   end record;

   package Object_Maps is new Ada.Containers.Indefinite_Ordered_Maps
     (Key_Type     => String,
      Element_Type => Properties);

   Objects : Object_Maps.Map;