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The Clarion Template Language uses symbols which act as variables do in a programming language -- they contain information that can be used as-is or may be used in expressions. These symbols may come from the built-in symbol set, or can be defined by the template author. Both types may be single-valued or multi-valued.

The built-in symbols that are available to the Template writer contain information from both the Dictionary and the Application about how the programmer has designed the application. The template-defined symbols contain information provided by the programmer from prompts on the Application Generator's properties windows, or may only be for internal use.

All template symbols expand during source generation to place the value they contain in the generated source code (if included in template code that generates source).

**See Also:     **[[expansion symbols.htm|Expansion Symbols]] ,[[symbol hierarchy overview.htm|Symbol Hierarchy Overview]]