Introduction to variables and imported types

Variables help you to add programming intelligence to macros. With a variable you can store a value, save a result, keep a count, save a text string, remember an outcome, or do any number of other programming essentials.

You can create a variable that belongs to any of the standard data types (string, integer, double, boolean, and field).

You can also create a variable that belongs to an imported type representing a Java class. You can then create an instance of the class and call a method on the instance. This capability opens the door to the abundant variety of functionality available through Java class libraries, including libraries in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) libraries, libraries in the ZIE Host Access Toolkit product, classes or libraries that you yourself implement, or Java classes and libraries from other sources.