variables

store a number, string, file descriptor, or select list, and may change dynamically throughout the execution of the program.

A program variable is similar to a mathematical variable found in formulas. Variable as a term first found widespread acceptance with the popularity of the FORTAN (FORmula TRANslation) programming language. xxxxx yyyyy But rather The variable 'X', for example, may be assigned the value 100 at the start of a program, and may then later be assigned the value 'This is a string'.

A numeric string, when used in an arithmetical expression, is converted to a numeric expression, and a numeric expression is converted to a string expression when used with a string operator.
A variable name identifies the variable. Variable names consist of an alphabetic character which can be followed by additional letters, numerals, periods, dollar signs, and in Advanced Pick releases 6.1.0 or above, the underscore character. The length of a variable name may be from 1 to 48 characters.

In AP, up to 214,748,363 variables may be defined.