Variables

Variables may be of any basic data type, or a custom type. A variable’s type is determined by a special character that follows its identifier. These special characters are called type tags.

Tag	Type
`%`	Integer
`#`	Float
`$`	String
`@`	Pointer

The type tag only needs to be added the first time you use a variable, after that you can leave the type tag off if you wish.

If you don’t supply a type tag the first time a variable is used, the variable defaults to an integer.

It is illegal to use the same variable name with a different type. For example, if you already have an integer variable called name%, it is illegal to also have a string variable called name$.

Assignment

You can use = to assign a value to a variable. For example: score% = 0 will assign the value 0 to the integer variable score. Note that = has different semantics inside assignments or if-conditions. The example below compares whether bar equals 3 and assigns its result to foo.

foo% = (bar = 3)

Scope

Variables may also be either Global, or Local. This refers to where in a program a variable may be used. Global variables can be used from anywhere in the program. Local variables can only be used within the function they are created in.

The Global keyword is used to define one or more global variables. For example:

Global Score# = 0.0, Lives% = 3, Player$ = "player"

Defines 3 global variables.

Similarly, Local is used to define local variables:

Local temp_x# = x, temp_y# = y

The operations above is called explicit definition. It indicates variable declaration, and throws a compile error when defining it multiple times. If you use a variable without defining it as either local or global, it defaults to being local. This operation is called implicit definition. This is not suggested since it creates another variable when you have a typo, leading to unexpected results.

It is strongly recommended to use Local or Global to declare variables, since it is a safer practice. You can also turn safe check in compiler to force the program to use explicit definition, and disable implicit definition.