Naming a new object after a string?

Question

I want to have a method that will create an object of the class being and automatically name it "b1" for the first object, "b2" for the second, and so on. Can I use a String as the name of a new object? If it's possible, how do I do it?

class being {
    static int count = 0;
    String name;

    void createbeing(){
        name = "b" + Integer.toString(count);
        being name = new being(); //Here I want to insert the String name as the name of the object
        count++;
    }

}

Answer 1

No, this is not possible in Java; you cannot create variables at runtime. You could, however, maintain a Map that maps String identifiers to their corresponding Beings. i.e.

Map<String, Being> map = new HashMap<String, Being>();
...
name = "b" + Integer.toString(count);
map.put(name, new Being());
count++;

Note that I have assumed a more conventional name: Being as opposed to being.

Answer 2

In your code you are just creating a local reference of the class object in the function "createbeing()",and the above declared String "name" is hidden in the "createbeing()" function scope by the reference "name" that you are declaring as a reference of the object of class being.