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Assignment (computer science)

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The assignment operation is one of the basic operations in most imperative computer progrmming languages. It usually takes the form

variable := expression.

The semantics of this operation is that the current state of the executing program is modified:

  • The expression is evaluated in the current state of the program.
  • The variable is assigned the computed value, possibly 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.

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