How to reference the contents of a variable in a keyboard macro definition?

Question

I have a macro called f5, which I globally bind the keyboard key <f5> to:

(fset 'f5
      [?i ?\[ ?* ?* ?P ?1 ?  ?\] escape ?h ?a])

(global-set-key (kbd "<f5>") 'f5)

So when I press f5, it inserts [**P1 ], and backs up the cursor and leaves me in input mode, which is fine.

But I have reached a stage where, depending on what I am doing, I don't want it to always insert "P1". Sometimes I might like it to insert, say, "P2". What I really want is that it inserts the content of a variable, which variable I can set depending on what I am doing. But I don't know how to reference the contents of a variable in a macro definition. Surely this is possible; how is it done?

Answer 1

You can use eval-expression when recording your macro.

M-: (insert MYVARNAME) RET