Hmm, I see... I guess the issue then is what exactly I'm trying to create my setPopup() function with - namely the ability to handle an unknown number of options in the popup menu. Drawing from my earlier examples for instance I don't know if the variable "testVar" might have one element or ten (though for usability's sake the number should be kept on the low side to avoid a humongous popup) whereas in your example you're able to manually generate the skeleton of the setPopup() function and put your "_target" and "_target_group" variables in the appropriate places since you know you just want to be able to do a set number of things to a particular target (attack, consider, look, etc.)
In any event you've most certainly given me a lot of great information to go on. Thank you again.
Edit: Rather unsurprisingly that was much simpler than I was making it. The following seems to be working exactly as I'd like it to. Many thanks for setting me straight.
testingVar = {
"send(\"bye\")",
"send(\"hi\")"
}
testVar = {
"left-click or right-click and do first item to send bye",
"click to send hi"
}
selectString("Hello", 1)
setPopup("main", testingVar, testVar)