# unobtrusive javascript -\> referencing instance varaiables

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/unobtrusive-javascript-referencing-instance-varaiables/58874>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [May 9, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/unobtrusive-javascript-referencing-instance-varaiables/58874 "2011-05-09T13:57:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![11155](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/d26b3c/32.png) [@11155](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/11155)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/unobtrusive-javascript-referencing-instance-varaiables/58874/1 "2011-05-09T13:57:40Z")

</div>

if i have a variable, such as: @text declared in my controller, how would i go about dereferencing that in an .js.erb file?

i seem to see a lot of pages using: \<%= @text %\> to directly dereference the value, but i can't seem to get it to work.. i get invalid symbol errors (js errors) as soon as it hits "\<%="..

any help? thanks!