STO> vs :=

[Dave Britten]

Is there any significant difference between STO> and := for variable assignment? The help text for the two is slightly different in a way that makes me think there might be. I know STO> is also used for the unit conversion shortcut.

[cyrille de brébisson]

Hello,

Functionally, they are the same (the same code is sued for both).

There is the |>_unit shortcut that does exist, but is a parser hack, not a sto functionality (comes from the CAS).

|> is more of the "math" notation while := is more of a computer science one..

Appart from that, identical.

Cyrille

[Dave Britten]

Thanks for clearing it up. I'll probably stick with := simply because it's easier to type on a PC.

[cyrille de brébisson]

Hello,

I would agree with you here.

The main difference stand in your order of thinking. := means I need to update the value of a variable. Let me think what I need to set it to.
|> means: I do a calculation... and I want to save it's result somewhere for later use...

As you can see, 2 different way of thinking can lead to 2 different use of the 2 different sto.

Cyrille