Scripts can "create" up to 200 user-defined local variables per script. The userset command is used to create and/or set local user variables. Local variables only remained defined within the script they were created in. They are not accessible from sub-scripts. Note that you can pass the value of a local variable to a sub-script by specifying it as a parameter. Once a local variable has been created, it can be accessed and changed like any other variable type.

For example:

localset NEXTOBJECT        ; this creates NEXTOBJECT and clears its contents

localset NEXTOBJECT M31        ; this sets its value

set NEXTOBJECT M31        ; this works because it was already created with 'localset'

NEXTOBJECT= M31                ; this also works because it was already created with 'localset'

       echo "The next object is" $NEXTOBJECT        ; this displays "The next object is M31" to the screen and log files

Local variable names:

  • can contain any reasonable combination of numbers, letters, and symbols provided they don't have special meaning (such as ":", "=", ";", etc.).
  • can conflict with other variables such as the pre-defined variables or global variables. In the case of a conflict the local variable takes precedence.
  • are not case-sensitive, but it is good convention to use all CAPITAL LETTERS so as to make them easily identifiable.