code: def get_var(name, default=None):
      
      alchemytypes = {"text": lambda x: x.decode('utf-8'),
                      "big_integer": lambda x: int(x),
                      "date": lambda x: x.decode('utf-8'),
                      "datetime": lambda x: x.decode('utf-8'),
                      "float": lambda x: float(x),
                      "large_binary": lambda x: x,
                      "boolean": lambda x: x==b'True'}
  
      connection = _State.connection()
      _State.new_transaction()
  
      if _State.vars_table_name not in list(_State.metadata.tables.keys()):
          return None
  
      table = sqlalchemy.Table(_State.vars_table_name, _State.metadata)
      s = sqlalchemy.select([table.c.value_blob, table.c.type])
      s = s.where(table.c.name == name)
      result = connection.execute(s).fetchone()
  
      if not result:
          return None
  
      return alchemytypes[result[1]](result[0])
  
      # This is to do the variable type conversion through the SQL engine
      execute = connection.execute
      execute("CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE _sw_tmp ('value' {})".format(result.type))
      execute("INSERT INTO _sw_tmp VALUES (:value)", value=result.value_blob)
      var = execute('SELECT value FROM _sw_tmp').fetchone().value
      execute("DROP TABLE _sw_tmp")
      return var.decode('utf-8')
docs: Returns the variable with the provided key from the
      table specified by _State.vars_table_name.