Variable assignment and display

In RLaB , variables can have names of any length containing most printable characters including {az, AZ,$\_$}. You will observe that we have to exclude special characters such as +, -, *, / and the SPACE character. The actual assignment operator symbol is ``='' and an assignment statement looks like

                variable_name = expression_to_evaluate

and an example is

> radius=2
 radius =
        2
> circumference=2 * pi * radius
 circumference =
     12.6

where a variable radius is created and initialised with the real value 2, and then a variable circumference is created and filled with the result of evaluating the right hand side of the equation. To see the value of either of these variables, just enter their name and RLaB  will print their value. For a description of variable names, please read the help on VARIABLES.

As you have probably noticed by now, the result of each expression is automatically printed to the screen. This feature can be controlled by using the `;' character. Terminating an expression with a `;' will suppress printing of the result. Likewise, terminating an expression with the `?' is an explicit way to force printing.