Add a letter to the end of a variable name

[Tim Porritt]

I'm trying to add a letter from an array to the end of KeyEvent.VK_

My code so far is as follows:

String[] alphabet = {"A", "B", "C", "D", "E"};
	
	private int keycode(String i)
	{
		for(int a = 0; a < alphabet.length; a++)
		{
			if(i.equals(a))
			{
				return KeyEvent.VK_ + alphabet[a];
			}
		}
	}

There's probably a better way to do this, but i don't know how to do it.
I'll add the rest of the alphabet later.

Thank you in advance for any help.

[fred rosenberger]

If you are trying to dynamically create the name of a variable inside your running program, you can't. variable names are used by programmers, not the running code.

Whatever you are REALLY trying to do...there is almost for sure a better way.

[Michael Dunn]

as keycode() returns an int, perhaps all you need to do is something like this

private int keycode(String i)
{
  return (int)i.charAt(0);
}

and to check
System.out.println(keycode("C"));
System.out.println(KeyEvent.VK_C);

[Tim Porritt]

What i'm trying to do is get the keycode for a string.
e.g If the string says "a", i want to return the integer for that, which is KeyEvent.VK_A, or 65.
I already found a way to do this, but it's really long and i have to write out every letter of the alphabet 3 times.

		if(i.equals("A") || i.equals("a"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_A;
		
		else if(i.equals("B") || i.equals("b"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_B;
		
		else if(i.equals("C") || i.equals("c"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_C;

		else if(i.equals("D") || i.equals("d"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_D;
		
		else if(i.equals("E") || i.equals("e"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_E;

		else if(i.equals("F") || i.equals("f"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_F;
		
		else if(i.equals("G") || i.equals("g"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_G;
		
		else if(i.equals("H") || i.equals("h"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_H;

		else if(i.equals("I") || i.equals("i"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_I;
		
		else if(i.equals("J") || i.equals("j"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_J;

		else if(i.equals("K") || i.equals("k"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_K;
		
		else if(i.equals("L") || i.equals("l"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_L;
		
		else if(i.equals("M") || i.equals("m"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_M;

		else if(i.equals("N") || i.equals("n"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_N;
		
		else if(i.equals("O") || i.equals("o"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_O;
		
		else if(i.equals("P") || i.equals("p"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_P;

		else if(i.equals("Q") || i.equals("q"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_Q;
		
		else if(i.equals("R") || i.equals("r"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_R;
		
		else if(i.equals("S") || i.equals("s"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_S;

		else if(i.equals("T") || i.equals("t"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_T;
		
		else if(i.equals("U") || i.equals("u"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_U;

		else if(i.equals("V") || i.equals("v"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_V;
		
		else if(i.equals("W") || i.equals("w"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_W;
		
		else if(i.equals("X") || i.equals("x"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_X;

		else if(i.equals("Y") || i.equals("y"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_Y;
		
		else if(i.equals("Z") || i.equals("z"))
			return KeyEvent.VK_Z;

[Michael Dunn]

you can simplify it a bit
if(i.equals("A") || i.equals("a"))
can be done
if(i.toUpperCase().equals("A"))

or, in my earlier post
return (int)i.charAt(0);
becomes
return (int)i.toUpperCase().charAt(0);

and the test:
System.out.println(keycode("c"));
System.out.println(keycode("C"));
System.out.println(KeyEvent.VK_C);

all should print 67