Variable Call via Another Variable's Content

Hello!

Does anyone know of a way to call (or create) a variable by using the *contents* of another variable, presumably a concatenated string?
An attempt I didn't expect to work is below to clarify...if it clarifies.

Code:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    const char a='B';
    const int B=99;
    const char* A=a;
    int ending;
    cout << a << ": Should read 'B'" << endl;
    cout << B << ": Should read '99'" << endl;
    cout << A << ": Should read 'B'" << endl;
    cout << *A << ": Should read 'B'" << endl;
    cout << &A << ": Should read some memory address crap" << endl;
    //cout << *a << endl;
    cout << "Press enter to end program" endl;
    cin >> ending
    system("PAUSE");
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Does what I'm asking make sense? Is there a way to do it?
Thanks muchly!

Code:

const char* A=&a;

Will have A be an unchangeable pointer to the character variable a.

However, this is just a pointer. I think you want to do something like:

Code:

const char a = 'B';

char thestring[50];

thestring[0] = a;
thestring[1] = '\0';//make sure you add the null

strcat(thestring, "ecause I said so.");//this will concatenate to the string.

//now thestring is an array that contains "Because I said so."

However, that's the C-style way. The standard C++ approach is something like:

Code:

std::string thestring(1u, a);//create a string with 1 of the variable a's in it

thestring += "ecause I said so.";//add this to thestring

//now thestring has a value of "Because I said so."
//be careful, though.  If you want to access a std::string like a C-style string, you should use
//the member function c_str().
//an example:
char string2[50];

strcpy(string2, thestring.c_str());

Note that the above code isn't the best -- it can definitely be made better by using dynamic allocation, but I decided to stick with simplicity here.

Thanks Kybo_Ren,

That will definitely help me in getting the strings right, but I'm still in the dark about creating a variable using the contents of one variable as the name of the new one.

Code:

char x[50];
x[0]='F';
x[1]='/0'; //could I just do x[0]='F/0'?
strcat(x, 'rank');
//good to here. I have x=Frank thus far

Now, conceptually, I want to declare a variable named "Frank". But I don't just want:

Code:

int Frank=2;

I want something more like:

Code:

int somesupermagictricktousethecontentsof(x)=2;
cout<<Frank; //displaying the value 2

This way I can do fancier things. Does C++ have a way to accomplish this? Or perhaps..perhaps I need to write a function that returns the content of x and use it like I did just above....

Any further advice?

~E-Rac