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Evaluates the specified feature variable of a specific variable type and returns its value.

This method is used to evaluate and return a feature variable. Multiple versions of this method are available and are named according to the data type they return:

  • [Generic](🔗) (only v3.3+)

  • [Boolean](🔗)

  • [Double](🔗)

  • [Integer](🔗)

  • [String](🔗)

  • [JSON](🔗)

This method takes into account the user `attributes` passed in, to determine if the user is part of the audience that qualifies for the experiment.

### Generic

Starting in v3.3.0 of the SDK you can use the generic feature variable accessor. This can return an integer, double, boolean, or string depending on the variable's defined type.



### Boolean
Returns the value of the specified Boolean variable.


### Double
Returns the value of the specified double variable.


### Integer
Returns the value of the specified integer variable.


### String
Returns the value of the specified string variable.


### JSON
Returns the value of the specified JSON variable.


## Version
SDK v3.0, v3.1, v3.2, v3.3
## Description
Each of the Get Feature Variable methods follows the same logic as [Is Feature Enabled](🔗):
  1. Evaluate any feature tests running for a user.
  2. Check the default configuration on a rollout.
The default value is returned if neither of these are applicable for the specified user, or if the user is in a variation where the feature is disabled.
Important
Unlike [Is Feature Enabled](🔗), the Get Feature Variable methods do not trigger an impression event. This means that if you are running a feature test, events will not be counted until you call Is Feature Enabled. If you do not call Is Feature Enabled, you will not see any visitors on your results page.
## Parameters
Required and optional parameters in Ruby are listed below.
ParameterTypeDescription
**feature_flag_key**
_required_stringThe feature key is defined from the Features dashboard; see [Use feature flags](🔗).
**variable_key**
_required_stringThe key that identifies the feature variable. For more information, see: [Create feature variables](🔗).
**user_id**
_required_stringThe user ID string uniquely identifies the participant in the experiment. For more information, see: [Handle user IDs](🔗).
**attributes**
_required_mapA map of custom key-value string pairs specifying attributes for the user that are used for [audience targeting](🔗) and [results segmentation](🔗). Non-string values are only supported in the 3.0 SDK and above.
## Returns
@return [<type specific>] The value of the variable, or `nil` if the feature key is invalid, the variable key is invalid, or there is a mismatch with the type of the variable.
## Example


## See also
 [Is Feature Enabled](🔗)
## Side effects
In SDKs v3.1 and later: Invokes the `DECISION` [Notification listeners](🔗) if this listener is enabled. 
## Source files
The language/platform source files containing the implementation for Ruby is [optimizely.rb](🔗).