# String as a variable name
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [February 21, 2017, 1:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195 "2017-02-21T01:43:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Shuhua](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Shuhua)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2020, 5:32am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195/21 "2020-07-24T05:32:31Z")
From this [StackOverflow thread](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50084877/how-to-alias-a-macro-in-julia), in Julia 1.3 there is convenient syntax `var"name"` to evaluate a _name string_ into a variable. The documentation is [here](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/base/base/#var%22name%22) (thanks to @Tamas_Papp). See examples below with Julia 1.4.2.
```julia-repl
julia> a = [1, 2, 3];
julia> var"a"
3-element Array{Int64,1}:
1
2
3
```
or create a new variable by assignment
```julia-repl
julia> var"msg" = "Hello, world!";
julia> msg
"Hello, world!"
```
---
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2020, 5:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195/22 "2020-07-24T05:49:25Z")
> [@Shuhua](#):
>
> I cannot find the official documentation for this syntax
`?@var_str`, like all other [literal macros](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/metaprogramming/#Non-Standard-String-Literals-1).
---
### Author:  [@yuyichao](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yuyichao)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195/23 "2020-07-24T13:22:38Z")
It does not allow you to do anything new. It’s merely a different syntax to write out a variable name that looks like a string.
---
### Author:  [@johnmyleswhite](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/johnmyleswhite)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2020, 1:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195/24 "2020-07-24T13:38:09Z")
Doesn’t it let you create and refer to variables whose names are not valid identifiers, which is not normally possible without metaprogramming?
```julia
julia> 1 = 2
ERROR: syntax: invalid assignment location "1" around REPL[1]:1
Stacktrace:
[1] top-level scope at REPL[1]:1
julia> var"1" = 2
2
```
---
### Author:  [@yuyichao](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yuyichao)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195/25 "2020-07-24T13:51:07Z")
Errrr, well,
1. That’s still just “a different syntax”, and
2. It has nothing to do with what this thread is about…
---
### Author:  [@eckofoid](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/eckofoid)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2020, 4:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195/26 "2020-09-18T04:00:45Z")
I’m not convinced this should ever be done, but, it seems to do what you wanted:
```julia
julia> boo = ("name1", "name2", "name3")
("name1", "name2", "name3")
julia> parsley = (55.6, 33.9, 3692.3)
(55.6, 33.9, 3692.3)
julia> for i in 1:length(boo)
eval(Meta.parse("var\"" * boo[i] * "\" = " * string(parsley[i])))
end
julia> name1
55.6
julia> name2
33.9
julia> name3
3692.3
```
---
### Author:  [@yuyichao](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yuyichao)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2020, 4:52am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195/27 "2020-09-18T04:52:32Z")
Never ever use parse to do metaprogramming.
---
### Author:  [@brett\_knoss](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/brett_knoss)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2021, 6:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/string-as-a-variable-name/2195/28 "2021-05-30T18:46:02Z")
Is it possible to convert a variable name to a string or vice versa in a marco? I’m working with dataframes, but I might also try to do the same thing with dictionaries.
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