Chapter 35. Parameters
Parameters are similar to constants/macros you can define once and use on various places in graph configuration.
Main benefits of parameters are centralization (later change the values only in one place) and configuration.
Values of graph parameters are always converted to string. (For example, if the value is represented by a CTL code returning a non-string result, the result will be converted to string.)
Every value, number, path, filename, attribute, etc. can be set up
or changed with the help of parameters except import statement in CTL code.
![[Important]](../figures/important.png) | Important |
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Parameters cannot be used in |
Creating Parameters
Graph parameters can be created using Graph Parameter Editor or using Export As Graph Parameter button in Edit Component Dialog.
Parameter Name
The names of parameters may contain uppercase and lowercase letters (A-Z,a-z),
digits (0-9) and the underscore character (_).
Additionally, the name must not start with a digit.
Example 35.1. Parameter Name
PARAMETER1 - valid parameter name
My_Cool_Parameter_002 - valid parameter name
127001 - invalid parameter name - begins with digit
My parameter - invalid parameter name - contains space character
My-Great-Parameter - invalid parameter name - contains hyphen character
Bücher - invalid parameter name - contains diacritics.
Priorities of Parameters
Graph parameters have lower priority than those specified in the Main tab or Parameters tab of Run Configurations.... In other words, both internal and external parameters can be overwritten by those specified in Run Configurations.... However, both external and internal parameters have higher priority than all environment variables and can overwrite them.
Each parameter can be created as:
Internal: See Internal Parameters.
Internal parameters can be Externalized: See Externalizing Internal Parameters.
External (shared): See External (Shared) Parameters.
External parameters can be Internalized: See Internalizing External (Shared) Parameters.
The value of parameters can be:
Static - parameter contains a fixed string value
Dynamic - parameter value is a CTL expression to be evaluated; see Parameters with CTL2 Expressions (Dynamic Parameters)
Graph parameter editor is described in Graph Parameter Editor.
List of Parameters
The list of parameters related to the project structure can be found in Standard Structure of All CloverDX Projects.
There are also some parameters that can be used in graphs or jobflow executed in the Server environment.
![[Note]](../figures/note.png) | Compatibility notice |
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CloverETL 3.5.x and later uses a new format of parameters different from CloverETL 3.4.x (and earlier). New versions can read the old format and convert it to new format, but the new format is not compatible with older versions. |