Variables are properties you can freely create in certain contexts. Variables can apply globally to a sequence file or locally to a particular sequence. You can also use station global variables with values that persist across different executions and across different invocations of the sequence editor or user interfaces. The TestStand Engine maintains the value of station global variables in the StationGlobals.ini file in the <TestStand Application Data>\Cfg directory.

You can use TestStand variables to share data among tests written in different programming languages, even if the data representations are incompatible. You can pass values you store in variables and properties to code modules. You can also use the TestStand API to access variable and property values directly from code modules. Each step in a sequence can include properties. The type of step determines its set of properties.

When executing sequences, TestStand maintains a SequenceContext object that contains references to all global variables, all local variables, and all step properties in active sequences. The contents of the SequenceContext object vary according to the currently executing sequence and step. When you pass a SequenceContext object reference to a code module, you can use the code module to access information stored within the SequenceContext object.