The parameter can be read at any time if you have access to the EvolutionState. You can say: int val = state.parameters.getInt(new Parameter("custom.BinInt- size"), null); But you shouldn't do this over and over again, it's expensive. Instead, you should do it during your Problem's setup(...) method: int val; public void setup(EvolutionState state, Parameter base) { super.setup(state, base); val = state.parameters.getInt(new Parameter("custom.BinInt-size"), null); ... other parameter setup goes here ... } On Jan 31, 2008, at 1:55 PM, David vun Kannon wrote: > I'm trying to modify tutorial 1 to create a BinInt problem that > will allow the bit string to be interpreted as a concatenation of > binary integers, for example, 150 bits = 30 5-bit integers. If I > create a parameter > > custom.BinInt-size = 5 > > where should I read this parameter to make it available to my > evaluate function? > > Thanks, > David vun Kannon