Erlang Programming/Variables

Variables in Erlang

Technically there are no variables in Erlang in the sense of multiple assignment. There are Dummy Variables which can take matching values in functions. Once matched their values do not change. Variables in erlang must start with a Capital letter from the Latin 1 character set.

Latin-1 have the following classifications in Erlang: Decimal      Example  Type of character -- 0 - 31                Control character 32                    Space 33 - 47               Punctuation 48 - 57       0-9     Digit 58 - 64               Punctuation 65 - 90       A-Z     Uppercase 91 - 96               Punctuation 97 - 122      a-z     Lowercase 123 - 127             Punctuation

Decimal      Example  Type of character -- 128 - 159             Control characters 160 - 191       - ¿   Punctuation 192 - 214     À - Ö   Uppercase ×      Punctuation 216 - 222     Ø - Þ   Uppercase 223 - 246     ß - ö   Lowercase 247           ÷       Punctuation 248 - 255     ø - ÿ   Lowercase

Examples of variables 19> ß = 1. ** exception error: no match of right hand side value 1 20> Þ = a. a 21> A = ß. ß

Explanation Þ is a capital letter so it can be a variable. ß is not a capital letter so it can not be a variable, but it can be a symbol value.