MEL: Source A Script With A Variable

Maya's MEL script command "source" will not let you source a path through a variable. Example, the following will NOT work.

string $myScriptPath = "C:/myScript.mel" ;
source $myScriptPath ;

It will produce a syntax error. So, how do we do it then? One method is by using the "eval" command and putting the source command into the string itself and slashing out the quotes.

string $command = "source \"C:/script.mel\" ;" ;
eval $command ;

"eval" will run the string as a command, thus sourcing it and your script/variable.

Another option here is to create your own proc, let's call it betterSource() ;

global proc betterSource (string $script) {

     string $command = "source \""+$script+"\"";
     eval $command ;

}

// Now you can run:

string $path = "C:/script.mel" ;
betterSource $path ;

Either way works and one is not necessarily better than the other.