Setvar Global Variable Quotes?

Yes - both can "work," but they do different things in ARC JavaScript.

The correct rule

Use:

setVar("$anamationStatus", 0);

when you want the global variable to be a number.

Use:

setVar("$anamationStatus", "0");

when you want it to be a string.

Why this matters

ARC global variables are typed by the value you store:

• 0 = numeric zero
• "0" = text containing the character zero

They may look the same when displayed, but they are not the same value type.

Example differences

setVar("$myValue", 0);
setVar("$myText", "0");

• getVar("$myValue") returns a number
• getVar("$myText") returns a string

That matters when you later compare, calculate, or make logic decisions:

if (getVar("$myValue") == 0) {
  print("numeric zero");
}

if (getVar("$myText") == "0") {
  print("string zero");
}

Best practice in ARC

If the variable represents a state, count, index, speed, or anything numeric, store it as a number:

setVar("$animationStatus", 0);

If it represents labels, names, or text, store it as a string:

setVar("$statusMessage", "ready");

Why you may think both work

Because ARC will often display them similarly in the variable watcher, and JavaScript can sometimes coerce types during comparisons. But relying on that can cause subtle bugs later.

Recommendation

For status flags like your example, I’d suggest using a number unless you specifically need text:

setVar("$animationStatus", 0);

If you want to make the meaning clearer, you could even use:

setVar("$animationStatus", "stopped"); // text state

or a numeric convention like:

setVar("$animationStatus", 0); // 0 = stopped, 1 = running

One more thing

I noticed the variable name is spelled anamationStatus in your example. If that’s accidental, I’d fix the spelling to avoid confusion later.

If you want, I can also show you the best ARC pattern for using global status variables in multiple scripts. Questions like this are often a great fit for the ARC AI Assistant inside the script editor as well:
https://synthiam.com/Products/AI-Assistant

Just what I needed to know. I appreciate this information.