Equals (computing)

"=", ASCII character 61.

Common names: ITU-T: equals; gets; takes. Rare: quadrathorpe; INTERCAL: half-mesh.

Equals is used in many programming languages as the assignment operator though earlier languages used ":=" ("becomes equal to") to avoid upsetting mathematicians with statements such as "x = x+1". It is also used by itself and in compounds such as "<=", ">=", "==", "/=", "!=" for various comparison operators and in C's "+=", "*=" etc. which mimic the primitive operations of two-address code.