Abstract: For use with a computer system having a dynamic data referencing (DDR) module, a plurality of external data references accessible via the DDR module, the computer system capable of executing a user application that operates on a plurality of generic variables, a system and method for dynamically binding the external data references to the generic variables. The system includes a DDR routine within the user application that allows creation of an alias variable for at least some of the plurality of generic variables. The alias variable is adapted to identify a given external data reference. The user application employs the alias variable at runtime to request the DDR module to bind a given generic variable to the given external data reference to allow communication of data between the user application and the external references.