Pass in generated string as a variable name?

[Swiftone]

I have a disgusting working version, and then a new method that is less disgusting but I can't seem to get working correctly. Here is the error:

Error: Line 14 'SetTexture' (number expected, got string)

Broken:

        local num_0 = surface.GetTextureID ("halflife/num_0")
        local num_1 = surface.GetTextureID ("halflife/num_1")
        --etc 0 through 9

	local timeTable = splitString(TimeLeft)
	local spacing = 35
		
	for k, v in pairs(timeTable) do
		for i = 0, 9 do
			if v == tostring(i) then
				texture = ("num_" .. i)
				spacing = spacing + 35
				print(texture)
			end				
		end				
		surface.SetTexture( texture )
		surface.SetDrawColor( HUD_Color )
		surface.DrawTexturedRect (250 + spacing ,250,30,30)		
	end

Working:

 local num_0 = surface.GetTextureID ("halflife/num_0")
        local num_1 = surface.GetTextureID ("halflife/num_1")
        --etc 0 through 9

	local timeTable = splitString(TimeLeft)
	local spacing = 35

	for k, v in pairs(timeTable) do
		if v == "0" then 
			texture = num_0
			spacing = spacing + 35
		elseif v == "1" then
			texture = num_1
			spacing = spacing + 35
		elseif v == "2" then
			texture = num_2				
			spacing = spacing + 35			
		elseif v == "3" then
			texture = num_3			
			spacing = spacing + 35			
		elseif v == "4" then
			texture = num_4				
			spacing = spacing + 35			
		elseif v == "5" then			
			texture = num_5
			spacing = spacing + 35				
		elseif v == "6" then
			texture = num_5	
			spacing = spacing + 35				
		elseif v == "7" then
			texture = num_7			
			spacing = spacing + 35				
		elseif v == "8" then
			texture = num_8		
			spacing = spacing + 35				
		elseif v == "9" then	
			texture = num_9	
			spacing = spacing + 35			
		end
		surface.SetTexture( texture )
		surface.SetDrawColor( HUD_Color )
		surface.DrawTexturedRect (250 + spacing ,250,30,30)			
	end

[Rubat]

You can't access variables like that, put your textures in a table and access them from there.

local MyT = {}
MyT.num_0 = surface.GetTextureID ("halflife/num_0")

...

surface.SetTexture( MyT[ "num_" .. i )

[Swiftone]

Thanks once again boss man!