How to access variables by variable? (I.e. variable variables?) Can Arduino handle variable variables?


function getLetterCode(char input) {
    int letter_a = 17;
    int letter_b = 42;
    int letter_c = 50;
    return letter_$$input$$; //pseudocode
}


This is just a stripped down code to demonstrate my question. I am aware of arrays, the switch structure and other workarounds, but for my specific need variable variables would save tons of typing.
No, you can't do that sort of thing. That sort of thing is only possible on interpreted languages where the name of the variables is seen at runtime.  In compiled languages you can't see the variable names (they no longer exist) so you can't access them by name like that.

Instead you need to either store your variables in a simple array and access them by index, or create an array of "key/value" pairs (simplest to use an array of a struct) and iterate it looking for the right key to match with your input.  Or, if there aren't too many inputs, simply use a switch to select different values:

int getval(char input) {
    switch (input) {
        case 'a': return 17;
        case 'b': return 42;
        case 'c': return 50;
        default: return 0;
    }
}