# What does the leading underscore in front of a variable mean?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-does-the-leading-underscore-in-front-of-a-variable-mean/306393>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [March 14, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-does-the-leading-underscore-in-front-of-a-variable-mean/306393 "2010-03-14T17:04:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nlween](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nlween](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/nlween)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-does-the-leading-underscore-in-front-of-a-variable-mean/306393/1 "2010-03-14T17:04:13Z")

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i see this sometimes in tutorials, in some places a variable is referred to as “world” and other places “\_world”. what is the difference and when do you use which?