---
title: "Local Variables"
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published_at: "2026-02-14T01:37:27+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-02-14T01:37:28+00:00"
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excerpt: "“What are local variables, anyway?\" This was one of the questions I asked myself when I first read my QL USER GUIDE. Of course, I didn’t know what a PROCedure was either. Soon I discovered that I had been using global variables all along and didn’t even know it. Local variables are used within a…"
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  - name: "Marshall Stiles"
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volume: "3"
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    title: "QL Report v3 n6"
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pubdate: "June 15, 1987"
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---

# Local Variables

“What are local variables, anyway?” This was one of the questions I asked myself when I first read my QL USER GUIDE. Of course, I didn’t know what a PROCedure was either. Soon I discovered that I had been using global variables all along and didn’t even know it. Local variables are used within a procedure or a function without disrupting values assigned to variables with the same name outside the procedure or function. Generally speaking, in order for a variable to become local on the QL it must be declared thus by means of the LOCal command.