Local variables

As opposed to global variables, which have a scope within the execution of a job, local variables have a scope that is limited to the compound statement where it is declared. A compound statement is a set of statements contained within curly brackets {}, or within begin/end.

You can use local variables in scripts and function files.

For reasons to use local variables, see Drawbacks of global variables.

No prefix

A local variable does not have the $ prefix.

Declaration

You must declare a local variable before any other statements in the compound statement, and you can not declare a variable more than once within the compound statement.

You declare a local variable with the following syntax:

type name-list;

 

type	Specifies the type of variable, num or str. • num corresponds to a numeric value, as in num($variable), and can only be assigned numeric values. • str corresponds to a string value, just as a global $variable. The difference is the scope.
name-list	A comma separated list of the names of the declared variables. A name can consist of one or more letters, digits or underscore. Optionally, the name can be followed by one or more dimension specifications within square brackets, [], for example to declare an array variable. Note: The name is case insensitive, but must start with a letter.

Example 7

Declarations

num i, j;

str name, company, country;

 

Initialization

Scalar variables (as opposed to e.g. array variables) can be declared and initialized simultaneously.

Note:

If you do not initialize a local variable when you declare it, a numeric variable has value 0 and a string variable is empty, until you give them values.

Example 8

Declaration and initialization

num i, j, count = 3;

str name="Tom", company="OpenText";

 

Reserved keywords

You can not use the following keywords as variable names:

and, begin, bool, break, case, continue, default, do, else, end, false, for, goto, if, int, not, num, return, str, struct, switch, true, while.

Nested compound statements

Compound statements of a script can be nested. A local variable is passed to all child compound statements of the compound statement where it is declared. You can re-initialize or re-declare a local variable in a child compound statement, but the variable will retain its previous state when the child compound statement goes out of scope.

Example 9

Nested compound statements

Script 1 "Event" //This is the outermost compound statement type
                    where a local variable can exist, in this case
                    a "retrieved" script.

  str myStr = "Hello World!"; //Outermost declaration

  { //comp. statement 1

    {//comp. statement 2, nested inside if 1.

      log(0, "myStr: " + myStr); // "myStr: Hello World!"
                                    The value is passed on from
                                    where it is declared and
                                    initialized. 

    }

  }

  { //comp. statement 3

    str myStr = "Hello Kitty!"; //local declaration in 
                                 comp. statement 3

    log(0, "myStr: " + myStr);  // "myStr: Hello Kitty!"

  }

  log(0, "myStr: " + myStr); // "myStr: Hello World!" again, 
                                  because comp. statement 3 went
                                  out of scope

 

Using begin/end

As an alternative to {} you can use Begin/End to set limits on your compound statement.

Example 10

Begin / End

Begin

    num i, j=1;

    while (i++ < 10)

       log(j, "still in the loop");

End