How can I use the content of a variable to call another variable?

I'm confronted with the following problem:

eur2usd =[ 1.3 1.2 1.1];

eur2cad =[0.8 0.9 0.7];

currency = 'eur2usd'

I would like to use the variable currency to call the content of eur2usd ([ 1.3 1.2 1.1]). So that if currency = 'eur2cad', I can call the content of eur2cad by using the variable currency.

[Adam]

I would favour coming up with a solution which didn't require you to do that. e.g. having currency be a function handle rather than a raw variable-name string, or using containers.Map or some kind of array to index into.

But if you are set on having a variable name in a string I'm sure someone can soon furnish you with the appropriate eval-based syntax.

[Stephen23]

Basically you should not do this.

Using dynamically defined variable names or encoding data within the variable name is a pretty bad approach:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/304528-tutorial-why-variables-should-not-be-named-dynamically-eval

You should probably be using for your data: structures. This shows how it could work:

>> A = struct('eur2usd',[ 1.3 1.2 1.1],'eur2cad',[0.8 0.9 0.7]);
>> A.('eur2cad')
ans = [0.8,0.9,0.7]

Note that using a structure is extendable to any number of currencies without cluttering-up your workspace with a thousand variables. There is also a large selection of tools that you can use to manipulate structures, their fields and contents:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/structures.html

Summary: do not use eval to encode (meta-)data into the variable names!

Answer 1

[Andrew Reibold]

eval(currency)

or

eval('eur2usd')

etc

[Image Analyst]

David's "Answer" moved here since it'a not an Answer to the origianl question but a reply to Andrew

Thanks!