Variables in animations

Variables are not an alteration but a way of tracking values and using them later.
First you define your variable, then you add or subtract from it in a routine. You may also set the variable value explicitly.
Variables can be set to run a routine when a particular value is set or reached.

Rather than type the entire 'create var' declaration, you can use shorthand. Shorthand allows you to simply create a variable and assign it value like: var myv="pineapple" The above is equivalent to: create var as myv where value="pineapple" end The shorthand does not allow you to add condions or completion events but the variable created with shorthand can be changed and manipulated in all the same ways as a full declaration.
Note that this use of 'var' is done outside of routines. Using 'var' inside a routine is a local variable and behaves differently. Read about them in routines documentation.

View example in tutorial


create var as countHits
  where value=3 and condition=0 and completion=countDone
end

create routine as spriteHit
  update var countHits subtract=1
end

Parameters

completion={routine}: specify a routine to run when the value of the variable reaches the condition
condition={number}: if the value held by the variable reaches this "condition" value, then the completion event will fire
value={number}: the starting value of the variable. This must be an integer.

The condition of variables are checked just once per frame, after all sprites have been processed. The order inwhich different variable conditions are met is indeterminant. Therefore you cannot know the order that routines will be called as different conditions are met in that frame.

There are 2 frame events which can help in processing your variable conditions. Conditions are checked after the "penultimate" frame event, and before "frameexit".