Just as in other programming languages, we use a variable to store a value that is obtained from a computation or external source.
Start the REPL by typing julia in the Terminal:
$ julia # assign 100 to a variable x julia> x = 100 100 # multiple the value in the variable by 5 julia> x*5 500
We can change the values stored in a variable or mutate the state:
# assign a different value to x # this will replace the existing value in x julia> x = 24 24 # create another variable y julia> y = 10 10
Simple operations, such as swapping, are easy:
# swap values of x and y julia> x,y = y,x (10,24) julia> x 10 julia> y 24
The names of variables can start with a character or a "_" (underscore). Julia also allows Unicode names (UTF-8), but not all Unicode names are accepted in the variable name:
julia> _ab = 40 40 julia> @ab = 10 ERROR: syntax: unexpected "=" julia> 1000 1000
Please note "!" (exclamation mark) shouldn't be used in the variable name as functions...