# Setting Attributes on a Component Reference

When you include another component, such as `<lightning:button>`, in a component, we call that a component reference to `<lightning:button>`. You can use `<aura:set>` to set an attribute on the component reference. For example, if your component includes a reference to `<lightning:button>`:

```nolang
<lightning:button label="Save">
    <aura:set attribute="variant" value="brand"/>
</lightning:button>

```

This is equivalent to:

```nolang
<lightning:button label="Save" variant="brand" />

```

The latter syntax without `aura:set` makes more sense in this simple example. You can also use this simpler syntax in component references to set values for attributes that are inherited from parent components.

`aura:set` is more useful when you want to set markup as the attribute value. For example, this sample specifies the markup for the `else` attribute in the `aura:if` tag.

```nolang
<aura:component>
    <aura:attribute name="display" type="Boolean" default="true"/>
    <aura:if isTrue="{!v.display}">
        Show this if condition is true
        <aura:set attribute="else">
           <lightning:button label="Save" onclick="{!c.saveRecord}" />
        </aura:set>
    </aura:if>
</aura:component>
```

**See Also**

- [Setting Attributes Inherited from a Super Component](/docs/platform/aura-platform/guide/ref-tag-set-attr-super.md)