Language > Widgets > Creating Widget Applications > Widget User Values

# Widget User Values

Every widget primitive and compound widget can carry a user-specified value of any IDL data type and organization; that is, every widget contains a variable that can store arbitrary information. This value is ignored by the widget and is for the programmer’s convenience only.

The initial user value is specified using the UVALUE keyword to the widget creation function. If no initial value is specified, the user value is undefined. Once the widget exists, its user value can be examined and/or changed using the GET_UVALUE and SET_UVALUE keywords to the WIDGET_CONTROL procedure.

Note: The widget user value should not be confused with the widget value, described in Widget Values.

### User Values Simplify Event Handling

User values can be used to simplify event-handling. If each widget has a distinct user value, you need only check the user value of any event to determine which widget generated it. In practice, this means you do not need to keep track of the widget IDs of all the widgets in your widget hierarchy in order to determine what to do with a given event.

### User Values can be Accessible Throughout a Widget Application

Another use for user variables is to simulate a variable that is available in more than one IDL routine. For example, you can set the user value of a top-level base widget equal to one or more widget IDs. You then have an easy way to pass the widget IDs from your widget creation routine to your event handling routine.

We will take advantage of both of these aspects of user values in Example: Event Processing and User Values.