<text>Variables are placeholders for values stored in a script. A variable stores a value in one of several <emlinkhref="script/Typechecks.html">data types</emlink>.</text>
<text>Optionally, you can assign a value to the variable directly at declaration time. However, this is not possible for <code>static</code> variables. Without initialization variables always start with <code>nil</code>.</text>
<li>When <code>this</code> is a definition, local variables are constant. That protects against accidental modifications that would appear to work fine while there is only one object of a kind, but break in subtle ways as soon as there are multiple instances.</li>
<li>If two variables of the same name but differing scope are valid at the same time, then the variable of the smaller scope will be used, meaning for example an object local variable will "cover up" a global variable within its own scope.</li>
<li>If the same variable is declared multiple times, the variable will still exist only once and no error is thrown. Multiple initializations are considered regular assignments and executed in order, respectively.</li>
<li>A <code>static</code> variable may also be used in object scripts (see example). If a <code>static</code> variable of the same name is defined in another script, the name will refer to the same variable.</li>