Issues with variables

[jmarc]

Greetings. I have a general problem with variables. Some variables were working fine, but at one point, when I try to assign a new value to them, regardless of the value, Power Apps throws an error saying that there is a type conflict. Apparently, they have become context variables, although I never declared them as such. What I used to do to avoid this problem was to use other variables with subtly different names, but that's getting old quickly. I would like to know how to avoid this problem.

Here's an example:

Set(varIdLocation, 1); //Incompatible type. We can't evaluate your formula because the context variable types are incompatible with the types of values in other places in your app.

[Pstork1]

Whether its a global variable or a context variable a variable will always have a data type after you use it the first time.  The difference between a context variable and a global variable is that the context variable is only declared for the page that its on and a global variable is valid anywhere in the app. So you can give a context variable the same name but different types on two different screens and it will work. But once the variable has been declared the type is set and can't be changed. The way to avoid the problem is not to change data types after using a variable. One easy way to prevent that is to use the type of the variable in the name. Something like variableText or variableInt for a text or integer value. If you want to store a different type value temporarily you can if you convert the value to the right type when you store it.  For example if varIdLocation is a string then use Set(varIdLocation, text(1)) instead of just 1.

[jmarc]

Right, thanks for explaining that. But the issue is that the variable has become pretty much unusable. Now I get that error message I mentioned earlier in every place I referenced this variable, even though it used to work. I tried setting its value to 0, an empty string and even Blank, but I still get errors.

[PowerNuggets]

Hi @jmarc 

i propose you just to go to your variables and review the definitions and uses and you will be able to find the issue

KR,

[developerAJ]

@jmarc 

you will get errors until you remove the code where you are redefining the variable.

lets say first you set Set(varIdLocation, "Aj"); 

and using this in 10 different location so at all this location its considered as text but when you are updating the definition again

Set(varIdLocation, 1); now it become integer and conflicts the places where it was defined as text so until you remove Set(varIdLocation, 1); in code you will receive errors but once you change it should automatically fix.

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[jmarc]

I tried commenting every line where I use the variable, setting it to 1 on start (it's an integer variable) but I still get errors.

[Pstork1]

The problem is that the variable is already established in memory as a certain type.  You need to figure out what type that is.  If you check the variables panel on the left you can see where each variable is defined, what data type it is, and where it is being used. Since its already in memory you may have to change the name of the variable to change the type.  But the variable list should help you figure out where the error is coming from.  Because variables are normally used in formulas that expect a certain type you can't change the data type after they are initialized.