Variable types

Variables in the IBM Robotic Process Automation script language are strongly typed. Variables can assume different values during the script's runtime, but each variable only stores one value at a time with the same type.

Variables can receive default values when created or have values assigned during the script runtime. The following table shows each variables type and its description:

Designer mode label Script mode name Description
Address Address Store a full address from an address data. This address can return information about country, city, state, neighborhood, locality, sub locality, street, street type, street number, postal code, and postal code suffix.
Binary File Reader BinaryFileReader Stores binary values in a specific encoding for reading purposes. The binary file reader can return information about the file path and name, the position, the end position of the file stream, and the length.
Binary File Writer BinaryFileWriter Stores binary values in a specific encoding for writing purposes. The binary file writer can return information about the file path and name, the position, the end position of the file stream, and the length.
Boolean Boolean Stores a boolean value. The value can be True or False.
Browser Browser Stores an instance of a browser to handle actions.
Byte Byte Stores an 8-bit unsigned integer. The byte value ranges from 0 to 255.
Call Stack CallStack Stores the call stack containing the line number, commands, script, and routine are getting called.
Cancellation Token CancellationToken Stores a notification that operations should be canceled.
Cancellation Token Source CancellationTokenSource Stores the signal that the operation of Cancellation Token should be canceled.
Card Item CardItem Stores a card that allows you to combine images and buttons in one object. This variable returns the card and its properties, like the title, subtitle, and buttons. You can get the length and count properties for some of these variable properties.
Card Item Button CardItemButton Stores a card button information like its name, action, and value.
Chat Account ChatAccount Stores the properties from the sender and recipient of a chat dialog.
Chat Data ChatData Stores the data from the chatbot like the conversation Id, custom parameters, the From, and the recipient. For the From and Recipient data, you can access the properties, id, name properties.
Cipher Cipher Stores a cipher algorithm to encrypt and decrypt a value like the AES, RSA, and Rijndael algorithms.
Control Control Stores a control of a user interface element in a window.
Cookie Container CookieContainer Stores a set of instances to manage cookies.
Culture CultureInfo Stores information about a specific culture. As information, it stores the culture name, the writing system, the calendar, and the dates and numbers formats.
Data Row DataRow Stores a row of data in the data table.
Data Table DataTable Stores a data table of in-memory data.
Database Connection DbConnection Stores the components of database connections.
Date Date Stores a date in the default format yyyy-MM-dd. This variable can return part of the date such as the day, month, year, ticks, and day of the year.
Date Time DateTime Stores a date and time in the default format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss. This variable can return part of the date and time such as the day, month, year, ticks, day of the year, second, minute, hour, millisecond, and time of day.
Dialogflow Intention DialogflowIntention Store the interactions made from a dialog using Dialogflow. It also returns the variable properties like the key and value for each intention.
Display Display Stores the width, height and bits per pixel of a display from a device.
Email Connection EmailConnection Stores the components of email connections.
Email Message EmailMessage Stores the content of an email message.
Error Error Stores an error occurred in script runtime. This variable might return properties like the count, line number, message, type name, routine, stack trace, script, command of an error launched.
Excel Excel Stores an instance of an Excel workbook.
File System FileSystem Stores the data to handle a file system.
Fuzzy Fuzzy Stores fuzzy variables also known as linguistic variables. Fuzzy variables are defined by sets of fuzzy sets in a range of real numbers. Given a value to the fuzzy variable, that value may belong with a certain degree of relevance to one or more fuzzy sets that make up the fuzzy variable.
Fuzzy Set FuzzySet Stores a diffuse set that has a set of real values called the universe of discourse, and their respective values of the function of pertinence demonized degree of pertinence.
Http Content HttpContent Stores the HTTP content headers as defined in RFC 2616.
Image Image Stores an image in-memory data.
Image Grid ImageGrid Stores an image grid from a grid object.
IVR Data IvrData Stores data from an IVR. This data might be the ANI, DNIS, call time, and audio path.
Language Language Stores the culture and the speech engine for a specific language.
List<T> List Stores a strongly typed list. You can use simple and object types as inner type to the list variable.
This variable returns the list and the count property. This property returns the number of elements in the list.
Message Queue MessageQueue Stores a queue of messages.
Money Money Stores a numeric value in specific currency.
Number Numeric Stores a numeric value. The default value for numeric variables is zero.
The numeric value type and range can vary according to the stored value. The types and ranges are:

- Int integral number (32-bit): it ranges from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647.
- Long integral number (64-bit): it ranges from -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807.
- Double floating-point: it ranges from -1.7976931348623157E+308; to 1.7976931348623157E+308.
- Decimal floating-point: it ranges from -79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335 to 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335.
Office Application OfficeApplication Stores an instance of an Office application.
PDF Pdf Stores the data from a PDF file.
Phone Number PhoneNumber Stores a string as phone number composed by country code, area code, extension and the phone number.
Point Point Stores point coordinates between X and Y in pixels. This point varies according to the screen's resolution.
Proxy ProxyVariant Stores a proxy for accessing data from the internet.
Queue Connection QueueConnection Stores the queue connection.
Queue Message QueueMessage Stores the message in a queue.
Queue<T> Queue Stores a first in-first out (FIFO) collection. You can use simple and object types as inner types to the queue variable.
This variable returns the queue and the count property. This property returns the number of elements in the queue.
Rectangle Rectangle Stores a set of four integers (x, y, width, height) that represent the location and size of a rectangle.
Rule Rule Stores the data from a rule set.
Secure String SecureString Stores the password from a vault item. See SecureString variable type for more information.
Sms SmsProvider Stores the sender, recipient, and text to send an SMS by a provider.
Speech Engine SpeechEngine Stores the data to synthesize a speech by a specific speech cognitive service.
SSH Forwarded SSHForwardedPort Stores a port forwarding for an SSH connection.
SSH Session SSHSession Stores the data for a client connection to an SSH server.
Stack<T> Stack Stores a last-in-first-out (LIFO) collection. You can use simple and object types as inner types to the stack variable.
This variable returns the stack and the count property. This property returns the number of elements in the stack.
Stopwatch Stopwatch Stores the properties to measure the elapsed time.
Storage Adapter StorageAdapter Stores the connection to a database according to a strategy of storage: server, local, or both.
String Dictionary<TValue> StringDictionary Stores a string dictionary.
String Key Value Pair<TValue> StringKeyValuePair Stores a string key-value pair dictionary.
Telnet Session TelnetSession Stores a connection to a Telnet section.
Terminal Terminal Stores the data to handle a terminal section.
Text String Stores a text as a sequence of UTF-16 code units. This variable returns the text and the length property. This property returns the length of the text.
Text File Reader TextFileReader Stores the data in a specific encoding for reading a text file.
Text File Writer TextFileWriter Stores the data in a specific encoding for writing a text file.
Time Span TimeSpan Stores a time interval in the default format HH:mm:ss. This variable can return data of the time span such as the day, second, minute, hour, millisecond, total days, total seconds, total minutes, total hours, and total milliseconds.
Uri Uri Stores a representation of a uniform resource identifier (URI). This variable returns the URI and provides access to the parts of the URI by the variable properties, such as the PathAndQuery, LocalPath, Authority, IsFile, IsLoopback, Host, Port, Query, ParsedQuery, Fragment, Scheme, AbsoluteUri, AbsolutePath, and UserInfo. You can get the length, count, keys, and values properties for some of these variable properties.
Window Window Stores information from a Windows Desktop window.
Workflow Workflow Stores the data to handle a Workflow.
Workflow Batch WorkflowBatch Stores a batch of workflow instances.
Workflow Instance WorkflowInstance Stores the data of a workflow instance. This data defines the tasks for a workflow process.

Default values of variables

When you create variables without value, they assume a default value according to your type. In most cases, simple and object variable types initializes with the value null, except:

  • Numeric variable starts with the value 0. Numeric values might refer to integral and floating-point numbers.
  • Boolean variable start with the value false.
  • Cancellation Token and Cancellation Token Source variables start with the value <no preview>.
  • Culture variable starts with the value en-US.
  • Date and Date Time variables starts with the value 0001-01-01.
  • Collection and dictionaries variables start with the empty array [].
  • Time span variable start with the value 00:00:00.