MathGroup Archive 1999

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Re: getting the name of a symbol

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg15453] Re: [mg15412] getting the name of a symbol
  • From: "Richard W. Singerman" <rws at helix.nih.gov>
  • Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 04:21:54 -0500
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Andrew,

Pass the string to the function, ie put quotes around your symbol, and
then evaluate the string in your function.

Example:

f[y_] := Module[{valueY, stringY},

   valueY = ToExpression[y];
   stringY = y;

   Print[stringY];
   Print[valueY];

]

x =5
f["x"]

f prints

x

5

--Richard


ps. I see you're at NASA Ames. I'm currently working with Stanford
Telecom at NASA Goddard.
What are you working on?

Richard Singerman, Ph.D.
BioQuest
1761 R Street, NW Suite 2
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 986-5866
email: rws at alum.mit.edu


On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, Andrew Watson wrote:

> Dear Matherati,
> 
> I have a problem for which there must be a simple solution.
> 
> Within a function
> 
> f[a_] := blah blah blah
> 
> I want to make use of the name of the symbol supplied as input to the
> function.
> 
> For example, if called as
> 
> f[qxyz]
> 
> I want to get the string "qxyz". I have looked at HoldForm and
> SymbolName but nothing yet discovered seems to do the trick.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Andrew B. Watson
> MS 262-2
> NASA Ames Research Center
> Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
> (650) 604-5419	(650) 604-0255 fax
> abwatson at mail.arc.nasa.gov	http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/
> 



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