Coldfusion local scope outside of a function?

Question

What exactly is the local scope defined outside of a function?

Consider the following code:

<cfscript>

    local.madVar2 = "Local scope variable";

    function madness() {
        var madVar = "madness variable";
        madVar2 = "madness two variable";

        writeOutput("local: <BR>");
        writeDump(local);
        writeOutput("========================================= <BR>");

        writeOutput("local.madVar2: <BR>");     
        writeDump(local.madVar2);
        writeOutput("<BR>========================================= <BR>");

        writeOutput("madVar2: <BR>");       
        writeDump(madVar2);
        writeOutput("<BR>========================================= <BR>");

        writeOutput("variables.madVar2: <BR>");     
        writeDump(variables.madVar2);
        writeOutput("<BR>========================================= <BR>");
    }

</cfscript>

Changing the madVar2 assignment by adding the var keyword, like this:

function madness() {
    var madVar = "madness variable";
    var madVar2 = "madness two variable";

Will yield this output:

Answer 1

The Local scope is only defined within functions and should not be used outside of it.

Variables defined outside the functions, default to the variables scope.

//that way
myVar = 0;
//will be the same as
variables.myVar = 0;

When you refer to local.madVar2 variable, which was initialized outside the function you're essentially referring to the local.madVar2 in the variables scope i.e the variable madVar2 is stored inside a struct named local which is stored in the variables scope.

So essentially, with the proper scoping in place your code is treated as:

writeOutput("variables.local.madVar2: <BR>");     
writeDump(variables.local.madVar2);

Try dumping the variables scope just after defining the variables inside the function as:

var madVar = "madness variable";
madVar2 = "madness two variable";
writeDump(variables);
.....

You will see how the variables fall into scopes.