Passing JS variable name to function

Question

So here is what I am trying to do:

1. My variable named data_1 is set.

   var data_1 = {
     "y_legend": {
       "text": "# of Patients",
       "style": "{font-size: 20px; color: #778877}"
     },
     "x_legend": {
       "text": "AUG 09 - OCT 09",
       "style": "{font-size: 20px; color: #778877}"
     }
   };
   

2. In a drop down a user selects an option with the value of data_1 that calls load('data_1').

   function load(data)
   {
     tmp = findSWF("my_chart");
     x = tmp.load( JSON.stringify(data) );
   }
   

My Problem: I'm selecting an option with the value data_1 and not the variable itself. So in my function load('data_1'), when I alert(data) I get data = 'data_1'.

So how do I get the contents of my variable data_1 in my load function by passing only the name of the string?

Answer 1

var data_1 = { /* data goes here */ };

var data_choices = {1: data_1, 2: data_2, /* and so on */};

var load = function (data) {
    // data is "1", "2", etc. If you want to use the full data_1 name, change
    // the data_choices object keys.

    var tmp = findSWF("my_chart");
    var x = tmp.load( JSON.stringify(data_choices[data]) );
}

Answer 2

If it's a global variable, you can reference it with

window['the_variable_name']

E.g.

function load(data)
{ 
  tmp = findSWF( "my_chart" ); 
  x = tmp.load( JSON.stringify( window[data] ) ); 
}

Answer 3

or you could simply use

alert(eval(data))