What type of variables are used to share data between different parts of a LabVIEW application?

Global variables are specifically designed to facilitate data sharing between different parts of a LabVIEW application. When you declare a global variable, it creates a single instance of that variable that can be accessed from any VI (Virtual Instrument) within the application. This means that any component of your LabVIEW program can read from and write to the global variable, making it a powerful tool for managing shared data.

Global variables are particularly useful in larger applications where multiple VIs need to access or modify the same data without creating complex wiring or data flow management issues. They can be utilized for maintaining application states, configurations, and other critical information that requires consistency across different parts of the program.

While local variables, static variables, and thread-safe variables may serve specific purposes in LabVIEW, they do not provide the same level of accessibility across different VIs as global variables do. For instance, local variables can only be used within the same VI, while static variables maintain their values across different calls to the same VI but are also restricted in scope. Thread-safe variables refer to practices for ensuring that shared resources are accessed safely by multiple threads but do not directly describe a variable type used in LabVIEW.