Assignment (computer science)

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In most imperative computer programming languages, the assignment statement is one of the basic statements. It sets or re-sets the value assigned to a variable. This means that the same variable name will possibly stand for different values at different times; the variables are not handled in the same way as the unknowns x, y, z ... of algebra, which stand always for the same value.

Contents

1 Notation
2 Operation
3 Assignment versus equality
4 Parallel assignment
5 See also

Notation

Common representations of the assignment operator include an equals sign ("="), ":=", or a left-arrow; this last is less common in modern languages as this character is not available on most standard keyboard layouts. e.g.

variable = expression          Fortran, C, ...
variable := expression         Algol, Pascal, Ada, ...
variable <- expression         S, R
variable ← expression          APL
MOVE expression TO variable    COBOL

Some expression-oriented languages uniformly use functional syntax for all statements, including assignment:

(setq variable expression)     LISP
set variable expression        Tcl

Operation

Semantically, an assignment operation modifies the current state of the executing program:

The expression is evaluated in the current state of the program.
The variable is assigned the computed value, replacing the prior value of that variable.

Example: Assuming that a is a numeric variable, the assignment a := 2*a means that the content of the variable a is doubled after the execution of the statement.

An example segment of C code:

int x=10;
float y;
x=23;
y=32.4;

In this sample, the variable x is first declared as an int, and is then assigned the value of 10. Notice that the declaration and assignment occur in the same statement. In the second line, y is declared without an assignment. In the 3rd line, x is reassigned the value of 23. Finally, y is assigned the value of 32.4.

For an assignment operation it is necessary that the value of the expression is well-defined (it is a valid rvalue) and that the variable represents a modifiable entity (it is a valid modifiable (non-const) lvalue). In some languages, such as Perl, it is not necessary to declare a variable prior to assigning it a value.

Assignment versus equality

A common error regarding the assignment operation is when programmers confuse it with the equivalence expression, readily associated with the mathematical use of "=" to mean equality. Whereas assignment is an operation which alters the value of a variable, equivalence is an expression which tests whether two variables or expressions evaluate to the same value.

In many languages, the assignment operator is a single equals sign ("=") while the equivalence operator is a pair of equals signs ("=="), but this is far from universal; indeed some languages, such as BASIC, use a single equals sign for both, determining which is meant based on context.

This can lead to errors if the programmer forgets which form ("=", "==", ":=") is appropriate, particularly in languages such as C, where the assignment operator also returns the value assigned, and can be validly nested inside expressions (in the same way that a function returns a value). If the intention was to compare two values in an if statement, for instance, an assignment is quite likely to return a value interprettable as TRUE, in which case the then clause will be executed, leading the program to behave unexpectedly. While not necessarily a syntax error, most compilers and interpretters are able to detect such situations, and warn the programmer that an assignment operation may have been used where a comparison was intended.

Parallel assignment

Some programming languages, such as Python and Ruby, allow several variables to be assigned in parallel. In pseudocode:

a,b := 0,1

Simultaneously assigns 0 to a and 1 to b. More interestingly,

a,b := b,a

Swaps the values of a and b. In languages without parallel assignment, this would have to be written to use a temporary variable

var t := a
a := b
b := t

as the simpler construct a:=b ; b:=a would first assign the value of b to a, and then assign this same value back to b, thus ending with a and b both having the original value of b.

Assignment (computer science)

Notation

Operation

Assignment versus equality

Parallel assignment

See also