Is it possible to pass a variable name to function?

[afisakov]

Not sure if I am asking this right but the situation is below.
I have the damage values of a bunch of abilities saved under variable arrays.
I want to make an abinfo trigger that will display text to player based on all values of the ability.
Is it possible to pass the variable name into function in some way to streamline the process.
Hope to achieve

function mytips takes integer ablevel, stringarray myvarlable returns nothing
loop from 1 to ablevel
displaytext variable[ablevel]
endfunction

Now I know how to write the loop and DisplayTextToPlayer properly, but I do not know how to pass the stringarray 'myvariable' into function or if possible to do so.

Any advice?

 

[AceHart]

This does not work. You can only pass values, not references.

Though, if your information is sufficiently structured, a global array, or several if needed, should work just fine - just pass the starting index.

 

[afisakov]

So in order to get this to work I would have to redo my variables?
Instead of using fireball_damage, ice_bolt_damage, starfall_damage etc I would need to put them all into one large array base_damage and assign each ability spots in that array?
or is this possible without redoing the current variable name structure?

 

[AceHart]

Depends on how fancy you want this to look I guess

Something like takes integer WhatArray, and some testing:
if WhatArray == 1 then... do something with fireball_damage
if WhatArray == 2 then... starfall

 

[afisakov]

Depends on how fancy you want this to look I guess

Something like takes integer WhatArray, and some testing:
if WhatArray == 1 then... do something with fireball_damage
if WhatArray == 2 then... starfall

I guess this is a good time to explain my original goal more clearly. I have a save/load rpg where ability level upgrades are rather expensive and saved to your character, therefore a new player cannot see ow strong abilities wil later get. ALso, in some cases it is actually better to not upgrade to save on mana.
The goal, create an -abinfo command that shows mana costs, base damage, and spell multiplier ststs (triggered) for your heroes abilities for all 6 levels. Over 40 abilities total.
Since most of these stats already stored in arrays (ability specific, made from scopes) I was hoping to reference those variables in a loop function to write out the strings for me.
Ideally, to avoid having to make 40-60 loops inside the setup function, I wanted a separate 'createstringfromloop' function that would take the variable name and return a string with the 6 values and commas/numbering between them.

If this is impossible my next best options seem to be to
1) manually write the 6 variable references into a string function for each one needed
2) copy/paste a ton of loops into the setup trigger, that are identical except for the variable they call on 6 times
or 3) create a new massive variable array that would store data for all these abilities and use that to write my abinfo strings

advice on which path to take or a better solution?
I am currently leaning towards option 2 since easiest to execute, but it hardly sounds elegant and would be a rather long trigger

 

[AceHart]

Well, 40+ IFs may not look fancy or so, but is not a problem per se - will work just fine, except perhaps when some more changes are required later on

That said, I would go with
4) Store the data in a hashtable

 

[afisakov]

4) Store the data in a hashtable

this I like. I can store the hash data as the variables are setup, and then reference the values using StringHash and an integer for lvl.
This makes it far easier to adjust wording/format later on if needed.

Thanks

P.S. cannot figure out how to +rep anymore so I just pressed 'like' on your last post