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Re: Extracting the name of a variable

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg26918] Re: [mg26883] Extracting the name of a variable
  • From: Ken Levasseur <Kenneth_Levasseur at uml.edu>
  • Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 23:29:57 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <200101260627.BAA18734@smc.vnet.net>
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Mike:

This seems to work:

In[1]:=
z = 3

Out[1]=
3

In[2]:=
Attributes[nameExtract] = {HoldAll}

Out[2]=
{HoldAll}

In[3]:=
nameExtract[a_] := HoldForm[a] // ToString

In[4]:=
nameExtract[z] // FullForm

Out[4]//FullForm=
"z"

Ken Levasseur
Math Sci
UMass Lowell

Mike Yukish wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'd like to make a function that extracts the name of a variable and
> makes a string. So the function would do:
>
> In:  z = 4
>
> In: nameExtract[z]
>
> Out: "z"
>
> It appears to not be so simple, since once you assign z a value, the
> function SymbolName[z] returns an error. what's the trick?
>
> I want to do this so I can make a function takes z as an argument, and
> generates a name:value pair  "z=4"



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