i mightve found a sidefx forum with the answer. just took phrasing the search query just right
www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/50591/
good ol Slancik to the rescue: “`string rampname = “ramp”; int npt = chi(rampname); float ramppositions[]; for (int pt=1; pt<=npt;pt++) { float ramppos = chf(rampname + itoa(pt) + "pos" ); append(ramppositions, ramppos); } f[]@ramppositions = ramppositions;```