There are 3 kinds of user variables in Investor/RT, V# variables, C# variables, and T# variables.

V# and C# variables are numeric. T# variables are textual variables.

V#, C#, and T# variables can be set in various ways using RTL or by editing a cell in quotepage for example. Some indicators are programmed to store a series of numeric values into one or more adjacent V# or C# variables.

V# and T# variables are per symbol. V#1 for symbol X can have value A while V#1 for symbol Y can have value B. You may have many charts open on symbol X, each of them, for example, drawing a reference line at value V#1. Thus the value of V#1 is known across many charts that contain the same symbol.

C# variables are per chart. The value of C#1 in Chart A is known only inside Chart A.

V#1...V#512 are supported. All values are persistent on the database when you exit and start up again later.

C#1...C#128 are supported in RT 14. C#1...C#60 are persistent on the database while C#61...C#128 are temporary variables that begin with value 0.0 when you open the chart and can be set to other values while the chart is open. C# variables are independent of the symbol in the chart. If you are charting symbol X in a chart and C#7 has value 3.14, changing the symbol from X to Y in that chart has no effect on C#7. In contrast, V#7 can change value in the context of a chart when you change symbols because V# variable are symbol specific.

T#1...T#64 are supported in RT 14. Each T# can contain a string of text, e.g. a label of some kind, up to 29 characters in length. T#1...T#32 are persistent, per symbol, on the database. T#33...T#64 are for temporary usage, they have no textual content each time Investor/RT starts up; once set, the value is retained until Investor/RT exits.

If you reference a user variable inside RTL, e.g. V#33 the value is obtained from the symbol upon which the RTL formula is being calculated. If you have a chart of symbol X and some RTL signal or custom indicator in the chart that refers to V#33, the V#33 of symbol X is implied. If you want the RTL to refer to the value of V#33 from some other symbol other than the implied meaning, you can add the symbol is parentheses, e.g. V#33(ESM0) directly refers to ESM0's user variable 33 regardless of which symbol happens to be the implied symbol for that RTL expression.

The values of V# variables can be displayed in quotepages as column's. You can add annotation indicator(s) to a chart that display user variable values is you wish, e.g. the text "C#17=%C#17" in the annotation setup will produce text on the chart reading "C#17=3.14159" for example. Even the button title of a button that sets a particular C# variable can be specified using the % notation so that button title display the current value at all times.

RT 14 has a nice feature in the right-click menu (Show > Chart Variable Report) to review the values of all of the C# variables set in the particular chart.

Most indicators enable certain numeric parameters to be specified via a V# or a C# variable, e.g. the period of a moving average. Chart buttons can be used to make setting of V# or C# value easy with a click of the mouse. See button purposes “Set V# Variable” and “Set C# Variable”.

V# variables can be assigned a title and display format to help you keep track of their meaning. See File > Preferences > User Variables. This preference panel also has a button titled Usage Report you can click to produce a report the usage of V# and C# variables in the charts that are open at the time.