A system variable is a Oracle Forms variable that keeps track of an internal Oracle Forms state. You can reference the value of a system variable to control the way an application behaves.
Oracle Forms maintains the values of system variables on a per form basis. That is, the values of all system variables correspond only to the current form. The names of the available system variables are:
All system variables, except the four indicated with an asterisk (*), are read-only variables. These four variables are the only system variables to which you can explicitly assign values. Oracle Forms also supplies 6 default values for date and time. (See Date and Time System Default Values).
Because system variables are derived, if the value is not expected to change over the life of the trigger, you can save the system value in a local variable and use the local variable multiple times instead of getting the system variable value each time.