Creating Unique Variables with a #define

[GRex2595]

So I have a friend who is trying to make something in VB, where he has an array of buttons that he gives unique labels to put into an array. He doesn't know beforehand how many he has. He thought that he could use something that he saw in C to do it, but I don't think it can even be done in C. So the question is, is it possible to do something like

#define button(x) int button(x) = arr[x]

int main()
{
     button(1);
     button(2);
     button(3);
}

So that we get 3 ints button1, button2, and button3?

[Disch]

I don't get it. If you have arr[0], arr[1], and arr[2]... then why do you need button1, button2, button3? Can't you just use arr[0]?

To me, it looks like you're just renaming the variable. Which, if you want to do that... yeah, you could use a #define for that. Almost exactly what you did in your post:

#define button(x) (arr[x])

int main()
{
    button(1) = 5;  // <- same as writing arr[1] = 5;
}

Not that I would do that, but you certainly could. Though I think I must be misunderstanding the question.

[Peter87]

Is this what you want?

#define button(x) int button##x = arr[x] 

[LB]

If you want to give labels (aliases) to specific array indices:

int &hello = arr[0];
int &goodbye = arr[1];
std::swap(hello, goodbye); //swaps arr[0] and arr[1] 

[Disch]

Well he specifically said C, so I didn't think references were an option.

[LB]

This is a C++ forum, and when people say C it's usually 50% chance they actually mean C++, despite how dramatically different the languages are.

[GRex2595]

Yeah, we found out what the problem was. It was a VB issue, so I knew that we wouldn't be able to find the answer here, but he wouldn't believe me. Thanks for the help.