{/doc/acs-templating {Templating}} {Templating System Tag Reference: Variables} Templating System Tag Reference: Variables <master>

## Variables

Templating System : Designer Guide : Tag Reference : Variables

### Summary

Variables are used in templates as placeholders for dynamic data.

### Usage

Simple variables are referenced by surrounding the variable name with "commercial at" (`\@`) signs:

    <!-- simple variables -->
    <b><i>\@first_name\@ \@last_name\@</b></i>

When processing this template, the server will look for variables named `first_name` and `last_name` and substitute their values in the output:

    <b><i>Fred Finkel</b></i>

The columns of a row variable are referenced by separating the data source name and column with a period:

    <!-- onerow or multirow data sources -->
    <b><i>\@user.first_name\@ \@user.last_name\@</b></i>

The variables between at-signs are per-default quoted and internationalized. While quoting is necessary to protect against e.g. cross side scripting by escaping less and greater signs, ampersands and quotes, internationalization substitutes message keys in texts.

When either quoting or substitutions are not desired, one can specify modifiers in the variable specifications, as shown in the following examples:

Quoting and internationalization: | `<b>\@foo\@</b>`
Quoting and no internationalization: | `<b>\@foo;noi18n\@</b>`
No quoting and internationalization: | `<b>\@foo;noquote\@</b>`
No quoting and no internationalization: | `<b>\@foo;literal\@</b>`

### Note(s)

- An attempt to reference a variable that does not exist will cause an error message to appear in the browser.

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