Use string in place of variable name

Question

If you have a Java variable named xyz. Then later on I define a string which has the value of the named variable I want to play with.

String x=\"xyz\";
         


        

Answer 1

In general, if you want to access a variable in this way, you have to use Reflection, which is slower and potentially dangerous.

However, since you have a very specific scenario in mind, I'd take a different approach. Why not put your buttons or other elements into a map, with keys that are strings:

Map currentComponents = new HashMap();

currentComponents.put("a", new JButton());

String x = "a";

currentComponents.get(x).setPreferredSize(new Dimension(40,30));