Creating a new variable

To create a new variable in the Macro Editor, first click the <new variable> entry at the end of the Variable listbox. The Macro Editor creates a new variable and assigns to it some initial characteristics that you should modify to fit your needs. The initial values are:

An initial name (such as $a1$ ).
An initial type (string).
An initial value, which depends on the type (see Table 1).

Now you should set the values that you want for the new variable. For example, if you are creating an integer variable that is for counting screens and that should have an initial value of 1, then you might set the initial values as follows:

In the Name input field, type the name $intScreenCount$ .
In the Type listbox, select the integer data type.
In the Initial Value field, type 1.

Besides the Variables tab, the Macro Editor provides access, in several convenient locations, to a popup window for creating new variables. For example, in the Variable update action, the Name listbox contains not only all the names of variables that you have already created but also a <New Variable> entry. Click this entry to bring up the popup window for creating a new variable. Variables created using this popup window are equivalent to variables created in the Variables tab.

In the Code Editor, you create a new variable using a <create> element. There is a containing element called <vars> that contains all the variables in the macro script, and there is a <create> element for each variable. Figure 1 shows a <vars> element that contains five <create> elements:

Figure 1. Sample <vars> element

<vars>
   <create name="$strAccountName$" type="string" value="" />
   <create name="$intAmount$" type="integer" value="0" />
   <create name="$dblDistance$" type="double" value="0.0" />
   <create name="$boolSignedUp$" type="boolean" value="false" />
   <create name="$fldFunction$" type="field" />
</vars>

In the figure above the <vars> element creates one variable from each of the standard data types (string, integer, double, boolean, and field). You should notice that the attributes of each <create> element match the fields on the Variables tab: the name attribute contains the variable name, the type attribute contains the type, and the value field contains the initial value.

You must put all variable creations (<create> elements) inside the <vars> element. The <vars> element itself must appear after the <import> element, if any (see the next section), and before the first macro screen (<screen> element).