10.6. Scope of Undeclared VariablesIn AppleScript, you do not have to declare variables. When you use a name that, by the preceding rules of scope, is not an existing variable, AppleScript does not complain; rather, it creates the variable for you. How it does this depends upon the location of the code that uses the nonexistent variable name:
Let's illustrate an implicit global first: set x to 5 on getX( ) global x display dialog x end getX getX( ) -- 5 The first line never said explicitly that x should be a global. But it clearly is one, since when getX comes along and asks to see a global called x, the x created in the first line is what it sees. (Incidentally, you can move the "set x to 5" line to after the getX handler definition and the script will still work; the important thing is that the global x be defined by the time getX runs, not necessarily before getX itself is defined.) Incidentally, a variable created implicitly in a script's top-level explicit run handler is an implicit global as well, just as if you'd declared it at the absolute top level: on run set howdy to "Howdy" sayHowdy( ) -- Howdy end run on sayHowdy( ) global howdy display dialog howdy end sayHowdy That's a very odd rule, as in no other respect (I believe) is an explicit run handler treated like the absolute top level; usually, it's treated like a handler, in which case the implicit variable would be local. This shows the extremes the language goes to in order to cope with undeclared variables. Now for an implicit local: set x to 5 on getX( ) set x to 10 display dialog x end getX getX( ) -- 10 display dialog x -- 5 Clearly we are now talking about two different variables called x. We have already established that the top-level x is global; but getX is evidently not seeing it. It is setting to 10, and displaying, some other x; its actions are having no effect on the top-level x, as the last line proves. So getX's x must be local to getX. To prove that it is truly local and not some sort of magic downward global within getX, we need another test: script s set x to 10 on myHandler( ) display dialog x end myHandler myHandler( ) end script run s -- error: The variable x is not defined But if we reverse the structurea script object in a handler, instead of a handler in a script objectthen it works: on getX( ) set x to 10 script s display dialog x end script run s end getX getX( ) -- 10 That isn't because x is not local; it's because of the special exceptional rule that a script object in a handler can see the handler's locals. |