Local variables are only accessible within the user-defined function that they are defined in.
Be certain there is at least one space between the slash and each local variable.
The LOCAL function in the following example defines two local variables: aaa and bbb.
(defun LOCAL ( / aaa bbb) (setq aaa "A" bbb "B") (princ (strcat "\naaa has the value " aaa )) (princ (strcat "\nbbb has the value " bbb)) (princ) ) LOCAL
(setq aaa 1 bbb 2) 2
!aaa 1 !bbb 2
(local) aaa has the value A bbb has the value B
You will notice the function used the values for aaa and bbb that are local within the function. The current values for aaa and bbb are still set to their global values and can be verified with the following statements:
!aaa 1 !bbb 2