# Introspection for accessing variable list

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/introspection-for-accessing-variable-list/4412>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [December 31, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/introspection-for-accessing-variable-list/4412 "2020-12-31T14:58:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pgte](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/pgte/32/4109_2.png) [@pgte](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/pgte)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/introspection-for-accessing-variable-list/4412/1 "2020-12-31T14:58:51Z")

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Is there a way to, from within a (private) notebook, to programatically access the names of all the variables available in that notebook?

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**Author:** ![bgchen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/bgchen/32/784_2.png) [@bgchen](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/bgchen)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/introspection-for-accessing-variable-list/4412/2 "2020-12-31T17:37:18Z")

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Not in an officially supported way, but you could hack something together using the trick explained [here](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/check-if-a-cell-is-defined/4351/3).