diff --git a/src/fitting/xyfit/xyfit.sl b/src/fitting/xyfit/xyfit.sl
index 99ffa153b6327a38eef316c04461793b207f57fc..10651fcee1a4836920fce3c77aaca41aedd1763e 100644
--- a/src/fitting/xyfit/xyfit.sl
+++ b/src/fitting/xyfit/xyfit.sl
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ define __xy () {
   }
   { case 2: (key, el) = ();
     if (typeof(el) == String_Type) {
+      % string(eval()) because number might be a variable
       variable f = sprintf("%s(%s)", key, string(eval(el)));
       if (assoc_key_exists(_STK, f))
 	return _STK[f];
@@ -839,7 +840,7 @@ define get_xydata(data_id)
   variable n = qualifier_exists("noticed") ? where(get_data_info(data_id).notice) : [0:data.n-1];
   return (data.xerr == NULL)
     ? (@data.x[n], @data.y[n], length(data.yerr) == data.n ? @data.yerr[n] : {data.yerr[0,n], data.yerr[1,n]})
-    : (@data.x[n], length(data.xerr) == data.n ? @data.xerr[n] : {data.xerr[0,n], data.xerr[1,n]}, @data.y[n], length(data.yerr) == data.n ? @data.yerr : {data.yerr[0,n], data.yerr[1,n]});
+    : (@data.x[n], length(data.xerr) == data.n ? @data.xerr[n] : {data.xerr[0,n], data.xerr[1,n]}, @data.y[n], length(data.yerr) == data.n ? @data.yerr[n] : {data.yerr[0,n], data.yerr[1,n]});
 }
 %}}}