4.1 Variable

We have already seen variable fields in several code examples of previous sections. Variable fields hold values, a characteristic which they share with most (but not all) properties:

class Main {
  static var example:String = "bar";

  public static function main() {
    trace(example);
    example = "foo";
    trace(example);
  }
}

We can learn from this that a variable

1. has a name (here: example),
2. has a type (here: String),
3. may have a constant initialization (here: "bar") and
4. may have access modifiers (here: static)

The example first prints the initialization value of example, then sets it to "foo" before printing its new value. The effect of access modifiers is shared by all three class field kinds and explained in a separate section.

It should be noted that the explicit type is not required if there is an initialization value. The compiler will infer it in this case.

Figure: Initialization values of a variable field.

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