Store heroes in variables?

How do I store heroes in variables, so that they when they are not needed, I can "save" them, and use them for later with the exact exp/level/items that they had?

Tell me if I don't make sense. Thanks in advance.

you can just hide a hero and set a unit variable to point to it, so when you need him unhide.

If you don't want any icon or anything to show up, just give the hero to neutral passive while he is hidden.

Another way would be storing him in gamecache