What are Variables?

What are Variables?

In Scratch, and Coding in general, a variable is a name for a value (for example: a number like 5) that can change.

For example, look at the blocks in the below image.

In the example above, we have a variable called number that changes as we move through down the stack of blocks.

What happens when you click this stack of blocks?

1. The number variable's value is set to 2.
2. The cat will say the value of number (2 at this point) for 2 seconds
3. The number variable's value is then set to 4
4. The cat will say the value of number (4 at this point) for 2 seconds

Variables are an essential way of representing Data, which are used in most programs.

For example, if we made a basketball game in Scratch and wanted to keep track of each team's score, we would need to use two variables: one number variable for each of the teams. These variables (let's call them Home Team Score and Away Team Score) would start with a value of 0 and then every time one of the teams scored a basket, the value of the appropriate variable would be increased by 2.