What is a Variable?

Variables are placeholders in memory for values in your process. Each variable has a name, description, type and value. ALBPM used different categories of variables based on the scope and context where they are used.

The following table describes the categories of variables in an ALBPM Project:

Variable	Description
Instance Variables	Store variable information across a process and are passed from one activity or task to another.
Project Variables	Store information across a project. When a project is published, Project Variables become available externally. If a Project Variable is defined as a Business Variable, it can be used to store information with the Process Data Mart.
Argument Variables	Function as an interface to instance variables so that they may be passed to or from external components or between processes.
Predefined Variables	Provide predefined information to set or get information from a process instance. Each activity encompasses a specific action. Therefore, some activities accept more kinds of variables than other activities.
Local Variables	Store information within a PBL Method. Local Variables are only available within BP-Method task where the variable is created.

Order of Precedence within a PBL Script

The order of precedence for Variables is:

Local
Argument
Instance

When accessing variables within a Method, you should be aware of the order of precedence among different types of variables. This is particularly important if you have variables of different types that have identical names.

In situations where you have overlapping variables names of different types or when you want to explicitly state the scope of a variable, you can use the following keywords:

Keyword	Description
this.	Explicitly specifies an instance variable.
arg.	Explicitly specifies an argument variable.