The "Assignment" Statement

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Assigns a value to a variable to be stored in memory, for use later in a program

To use an assignment statement in a program to store some value :

1. write the variable you want,

2. type the “equal” sign (“=”)

3. then type value or expression you want to save
i.e: y = 5 + 2

The program will evaluate the expression on the right side of the equal sign (“=”)

and store that value into the variable on the left side of the equal sign.

Assignment statements like “x = 12" and "y = 7" store values into the computer's memory

so that the program can use them later.

Below is an example showing both of the statements being executed

and evaluating the expression in a PRINT statement :

Program to add 2 values stored in variables :

x = 6 + 6 ' x is the variable you want to have the value 12 (the program adds 6 + 6 and stores the result)

y = 5 + 2 ' y is the variable you want to have the value 7 (the program adds 5 + 2 and stores the result)

PRINT x + y ' Look up what’s stored in x and y, add them together to display the answer

After assigning values to x and y,

the program can PRINT the sum of the values that are stored there.

Since x has the value 12 (6 + 6) and y has the value 7 (5 + 2),

the PRINT statement displays the answer : 19 on the display screen.

Example :

The statement “Total = UnitPrice * Quantity” may look like
an algebraic “statement of equality,”

but is actually an “assignment statement.”

These are not the same thing.

The difference is that, in algebra this statement states that

the value on the right of the equal sign
is equal to the value

on the left of the equal sign.

In programming languages, this statement

assigns the value of the expression on the right of the equal sign
to the memory location defined by the variable

on the left of the equal sign.

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