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assign

Assignment is the fundamental way to store values in variables in Soul. The language supports several types of assignment operations.

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Basic Assignment

Soul uses the = operator for basic assignment. Variables are dynamically typed and created upon first assignment. 
name = "Alice";
age = 30;
isStudent = true;

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Compound Assignment

Soul supports compound assignment operators that combine arithmetic operations with assignment: 
count = 10;
count += 5; // count = count + 5 → 15
count -= 3; // count = count - 3 → 12
count *= 2; // count = count * 2 → 24
count /= 4; // count = count / 4 → 6
count %= 3; // count = count % 3 → 0

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Assignment to Collections

You can assign values to list elements and map properties: 
// List assignment
numbers = [1, 2, 3];
numbers[0] = 10; // First element becomes 10

// Map assignment
user = { name: "Bob", age: 25 };
user["email"] = "bob@example.com";
user.age = 26; // Dot notation also works

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Multiple Assignment Patterns

Soul supports various assignment patterns for different data structures: 
// Simple assignments
x = 5;
y = x + 10;

// Object property assignment
person = {};
person.name = "Charlie";
person["occupation"] = "Developer";

// Nested assignments
data = { users: [] };
data.users[0] = { id: 1, name: "Dave" };

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Assignment in Control Flow

Assignments can be used within control flow structures: 
if ((result = calculateValue())) {
  println("Result: " + result);
}

while ((line = readNextLine())) {
  processLine(line);
}

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Best Practices

  1. Use descriptive variable names: userCount instead of c
  2. Initialize variables: Assign initial values when declaring variables
  3. Consistent naming: Use camelCase for variable names
  4. Avoid reassigning different types: Keep variable types consistent when possible
// Good
userCount = 0;
userName = "guest";
isLoggedIn = false;

// Avoid
x = 5;
x = "now a string"; // Type changed
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