Suppose I have an InputField of type String wherein I want to enter a symbol name that I want a later Button to assign values to. That button would then do something like:
Evaluate[ToSymbol[string]]=stuff
But if the symbol name that is entered already has been assigned a value, this fails because the left-hand-side becomes the value, to which it is not valid to assign a new value. How do I convert the string to a symbol without evaluating that symbol?
Use ToExpression with its three arguments form and construct the Set programmatically:
varname="test";
value=RandomReal[];
Set @@ Append[ToExpression[varname, InputForm, Hold], value]
Can you explain why you want to do this? I see many potential problems when you allow users of your gui to do this, they could e.g. accidentially overwrite any of the symbols you have defined in your code...
Package. It focuses on nonlinear fitting of experimental data to differential rate equations. I need the user, when the fit is done, to be able to output the results to their own variable. I also need the user to be able to output the state of a bunch of internal variables so that they can reuse the model set parameters when fitting at a later date. Overwriting symbols in my code is not a concern because nearly all of those symbols are local, and I will be adding a way to ensure that the symbol name input is global.
$\endgroup$
Commented
Sep 17, 2019 at 21:29