Re: returning a variable's name, rather than the variable's contents
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
 - Subject: [mg68435] Re: returning a variable's name, rather than the variable's contents
 - From: Jean-Marc Gulliet <jeanmarc.gulliet at gmail.com>
 - Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2006 03:46:30 -0400 (EDT)
 - Organization: The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
 - References: <eauvns$17c$1@smc.vnet.net>
 - Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
 
Michael Stern wrote:
> There must be a simple way to do this but it eludes me. Take for example the
> following: 
> 
> In[2]:= a=1;b=2;c=3;
> 
> In[3]:= Max[a,b,c]
> 
> Out[3]= 3
> 
> What would I do if I wanted Out[3] to equal "c" ?
What about the following trick?
In[1]:=
vars = {a, b, c};
varNames = ToString /@ vars;
values = {1, 2, 3};
vars = values;
First[Extract[varNames, Position[vars, Max[vars]]]]
Out[5]=
"c"
HTH,
Jean-Marc