What does "assign A to B" mean?

Question

If I say "assign A to B", does it mean (a) A ← B or (b) B ← A?

In other words, is it (a) A or (b) B that is being modified?

(a) makes sense because A has responsibility over B, so A is assigned to B.

(b) makes sense because A is some object in memory that needs an owner, so object A is assigned to an owner B.

Enough people use (a) that you need to be very careful when a sentence could be interpreted either way, but I usually see (b). — user2357112, Aug 03 '23 at 04:50
@user2357112 I'm comfortable with "assign variable `A` to have value `B`" for (a), but I prefer "assign value `A` to variable `B`" for (b). — Lover of Structure, Aug 03 '23 at 05:15
When you assign a motive to someone, how to you interpret that? The other direction would be "set", as it "set pax to work". — paxdiablo, Aug 03 '23 at 05:15
But what I find terribly confusing is "A → B", which I originally interpreted as "variable `A` changes to have value `B`", despite people seemingly intending the meaning "B ← A" (in the sense of: "assign value `A` to variable `B`"). — Lover of Structure, Aug 03 '23 at 05:20
I avoid using the term, and when I see it being used, I infer its meaning from context. — k314159, Aug 17 '23 at 14:28
@LoverofStructure the syntax `a -> b` is actually used in the programming languages POP2 and POP-11. Also, many assembly languages use the syntax `MOV source, dest`. It's uncommon but not that uncommon. — k314159, Aug 17 '23 at 14:41
I think your question is fine, but perhaps you can add some information about where you have encountered the two usages. — Lover of Structure, Aug 17 '23 at 15:28
@LoverofStructure I think I confused "assigned" with "assigned to" (see k314159's answer) — glibg10b, Aug 18 '23 at 08:41

k314159 · Accepted Answer · 2023-08-17T15:31:55.177

2

As can be seen in this Wikipedia page, conventionally the assignment a := b can be described in English by both the following statements, which are equivalent/interchangeable:

the value b is assigned to a (or assign b to a)
a is assigned the value b (or assign a the value b)

As you can see, it all depends on whether the word 'assigned' is followed by 'to'.

edited Aug 17 '23 at 15:31

answered Aug 17 '23 at 14:38

k314159

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What does "assign A to B" mean?

1 Answers1