What’s a Variable?

There are three types of variables in the Bot Builder: Custom, Context, and System.

Create custom variables to store information gathered from your customers. Use context variables to create channel-independent bots. Use the system variable to capture the last customer input with the bot. Variables are specific to the version of the bot in which they’re created. Variables can be inserted in bot messages and questions using standard merge syntax.

The following types are available for custom variables.

• Text
• Number
• Boolean
• Object
• Date
• DateTime
• Currency
• Id

Object type variables store full records with fields. For example, you can use a flow to retrieve a contact record, store the record in an object type variable, and then access one of the record fields, such as “Name”.

Id is a text type variable with a restricted character count.

• Add a Custom Variable
  Create custom variables to store information gathered from your customers.
• Understand Context and System Variables
  Access important information during bot conversations with context and system variables. Context variables let your bot gather customer information regardless of channel. System variables store back-end information about conversations.