Numbered Variables In For Loop

Projects Programming
1

Hello fellow Arduino forum members.

Here is my problem. I have 4 variables and I would like to serial print the information they contain. The 4 variables are:

int encoder_1 = 0; // Encoder 1 
int encoder_2 = 0; // Encoder 2 
int encoder_3 = 0; // Encoder 3 
int encoder_4 = 0; // Encoder 4

I tried to use a for loop to streamline the code a little, but when I verify the code I receive an error:

Encoder_Test:202: error: 'encoder_j' was not declared in this scope

Here is the code I would like to use:

   for(int j = 1; j <= 4; j++)
   { 
     Serial.print("Encoder ");
     Serial.print(j);
     Serial.print(" [");
     Serial.print(encoder_j);
     Serial.print("]  ");
   }// End for j
   
   Serial.print("\n"); // Carriage return to separate lines of serial data.

This is what I am currently using to make it work:

  Serial.print("Encoder 1 [");
  Serial.print(encoder_1);
  Serial.print("]  ");

  Serial.print("Encoder 2 [");
  Serial.print(encoder_2);
  Serial.print("]  ");

  Serial.print("Encoder 3 [");
  Serial.print(encoder_3);
  Serial.print("]  ");

  Serial.print("Encoder 4 [");
  Serial.print(encoder_4);
  Serial.print("]\n");

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

2

http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/Array

3

You're trying to use a technique for referencing an array on non-array type variables.

// an array declaration
int encoder[4];

//

for (byte j = 0; j < 4; j++)
{
     Serial.print("Encoder ");
     Serial.print(j + 1);            // array index start at 0
     Serial.print(" [");
     Serial.print(encoder[j]);    // the encoder value you are looking for
     Serial.print("]  ");             // you may want to make this one println()
}

// spot the difference?

You may want to read up more on using arrays. Try cplusplus.com

4

Wow. I can't believe it would be that simple.
Thank you AWOL and Jimmy60 for your help!