Obtaining the name of a variable as a string

Question

Suppose that I have an arbitrary variable myVariable. Is there some function fun -- either built-in or one that I can define -- that will return a string "myVariable" when I pass it myVariable?

I would like the output...

myVariable = 123456;
fun[myVariable]

...to give the output...

"myVariable"

... (a string output) for some function fun. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks so much.

Looks like you need SymbolName[Unevaluated[myvar]]. – Leonid Shifrin Sep 13 '13 at 02:05 — Leonid Shifrin, Sep 13 '13 at 02:05

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 13 '13 at 03:12

19

You can give the function one of the Hold Attributes.

SetAttributes[fun, HoldFirst]

Then as Leonid suggested

fun[var_] := SymbolName[Unevaluated@var]

Without the hold attribute, this will not work.

answered Sep 13 '13 at 03:12

RunnyKine

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score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 13 '13 at 02:31

7

Any of these could be a start:

ToString@((Trace@myVariable)[[1]])

Or:

StringCases[ToString[Hold[myVariable]],RegularExpression["Hold\\[([[:print:]]+)\\]"] -> "$1"][[1]]

answered Sep 13 '13 at 02:31

xtian777x

1,018
8
14

You don't need to use StringCases/regex if you use HoldForm instead of Hold – rm -rf Sep 13 '13 at 02:38

Obtaining the name of a variable as a string

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