Javascript - what array to look at

ja3h · 11 Jul 2011 at 20:05

Hello

I'm a bit stuck, I'm trying to have a template that will look at a variable and know which array to look at.

Say I had 2 arrays german & french.

var german = new Array();
german[0] = "German1";
german[1] = "German2";

var french= new Array();
german[0] = "German1";
german[1] = "German2";

I would like to be able to have a variable "market".

So if I set:
var market="german";

And put this in the HTML:

document.write(market[0]);

I would like it to display "German1"

Instead it is treating var market as a string and displaying the first element of the string "G".

I'd appreciate any help on this!

Thanks!

Pho · 11 Jul 2011 at 20:18

Code:

var market = german;
document.write(market[0]);

Lose the quotes

. With quotes you are saying that market = the string german, rather than copying whatever is in the german variable (the array of data) to it.

ja3h · 11 Jul 2011 at 20:30

Great, that worked and it's awesome BUT..

If I declare that first and then the array I get an undefined error if I put alert(market);

I assume that this is because the variable is the same as the array.

Is there anyway I could have the original variable as german1 then after declaring the array remove the 1 from the variable so it's back to german - thus it working!

Thanks!

ja3h · 11 Jul 2011 at 20:51

Okay I had to declare the new Array before the variable!

Pho · 11 Jul 2011 at 21:20

Heh yeah, the statement needs the array it's copying the data from to be declared first - otherwise you're saying that var market = <null> which just doesn't work.