Variables

A program needs to store the information it is using.

One way to do this is to use variables.

The program stores the information in memory, but it needs to know how to find that information again.

The information is easily found if the memory location is assigned a name.

Thus, a variable is nothing more than a named memory location used for storing information.

If you create a variable called FirstName, the program sets aside a section memory and assigns it that name. You can then store any persons first name there you want

One important thing to realized about variables: at any point in the program, the value of the variable (or, the value stored in the memory location) may be changed by the code. That is why it is called variable.