# Variables

## ℹ️ What are variables ?

Variables let you define values like reporting aliases or reporting values that will be used to enhance the data export data. Reporting aliases can be used instead of the actual question or answer text to set a shorter version that would be more meaningful within your third party statistical application. 

[Reporting values](/form-management/form-designer/answers/answer-properties/reporting-exports.md) and types on the other hand will be useful if you need to do calculations work on the data that you have collected as these will be assigned to your [SPSS ](/form-management/data-export/data-exports/spss-sav.md)variables as such when you're exporting your data to SPSS you will have all the labels with the proper types and values ready to use for analysis. 

By default all reporting values will be assigned a sequential value based on the order in time on which the answer has been added. Note that if you delete an answer the sequential number used for that answer will not be reused for another answer. 

Using the variables screen you can set in one interface all the variables for all the questions or answers of your survey.

<figure><img src="/files/9PPMs7wqdJlyDLObaPAt" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>


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