Understanding RobotFramework Variables

Question

So I get that Robot has 3 types of variable Scalar which are like ${}, List Which are like @{} and Dictionary which are like &{} but I dont understand it completely how they get treated in framework. Like I created dictionary variable like

*** Variables ***
&{D}           A=a  'B'=b

And then can use it like

${new_D}=   Copy Dictionary ${D} 
${var}= Get From Dictionary ${New D}    MGMT_IP

Since D and new_D are of dictionary type why they should not always be prefixed by &. Same goes for list.

Laurent Bristiel · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-05 08:27:09Z

4

The & prefix is used when creating the dictionary variable. Then you want to use the dict variable:

if you use $ prefix, then you access the dict as a whole. This is the most common way to use it, just like you do in your example.
if you use the &prefix, then you get the individual items of the dictionary (list of key:value).

This is best understood with an example (see the doc):

Assuming that a variable &{USER} has value {'name': 'robot', 'password': 'secret'}, the following two test cases are equivalent.

*** Test Cases ***
Constants
    Login    name=robot    password=secret

Dict Variable
    Login    &{USER}

But if you want to Copy Dictionary or Log the dict, then you access it with ${USER}

answered May 5, 2017 at 8:27

Laurent Bristiel

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