Variables
Variables are used to store data; they are placeholders for concrete values. When writing programs, it's convenient to use variables instead of the actual data as it's much easier to write pi
instead of 3.141592653589793
; especially when it happens several times inside your program. The data stored in a variable can be changed after it initially assigned, hence the name variable. You can also use variables to store data that is unknown to you while you write the code, such as the result of a later operation.
Using a variable requires the following two steps. You will need to:
- Declare the variable
- Initialize it, that is, give it a value
To declare a variable, you will use the var
statement like the following piece of code:
var a; var thisIsAVariable; var _and_this_too; var mix12three;
For the names of the variables, you can use any combination of letters, numbers, the underscore character, and the dollar sign. However, you can't start with a number...