variable name from string in obj-c

Question

I have a bunch of variables named index1, index2, ..., indexn. I want to calculate i = array[index1] + array[index2] + ... + array[indexn]. I heard that I can do that in a loop, getting the current variable name from the loop index. How can I do that?

Answer 1

Sorry, this is not possible in objective-c. It works for example in php.

There are ways to get objects by name if your data model allows for this, but in general variable names cannot be synthesized by name.

Answer 2

Instead of having individual variables like this:

int index1, index2, index3, ...indexN:

you should consider using an array of indices:

int index[N];

and then you can sum in a loop, e.g.

sum = 0;
for (i = 0; i < N; ++i)
{
    sum += array[index[i]];
}