diff --git a/@ensembleMetadata/buildFromPrimitives.m b/@ensembleMetadata/buildFromPrimitives.m
index eba4ae6e..b4aa2b26 100644
--- a/@ensembleMetadata/buildFromPrimitives.m
+++ b/@ensembleMetadata/buildFromPrimitives.m
@@ -59,7 +59,8 @@
             k = 3;
         end
         
-        varName = meta.variableNames(whichArg(r,k));
+        v = whichArg(r,k);
+        varName = meta.variableNames(v);
         dimName = meta.dims{v}(whichArg(r,k+1));
         stateName = stateType(whichArg(r, k+2));
         meta.metadata.(varName).(stateName).(dimName) = data;
@@ -75,4 +76,4 @@
 end
 
 
-end     
\ No newline at end of file
+end