hello would some one mind explaining to me why i get the error message
"SyntaxError: can't assign to literal"
if i type
>>> q = 7
>>> print q
7
thats fine, but why can i not do it the other way around ie
"7 = q"
thank for all the replys i am sure to get in advance
nige

The variable name is always on the left-hand side. That is what gets assigned to. 7 is a literal number and can't be assigned to.

cheers buddy

Just a minor clarification: in most programming languages, the "=" operator behaves differently than it does in mathematics. In math, it doesn't matter if you say "x=5" or "5=x", since what you're expressing is an equivalence - you're saying that those two things have the same value. In programming languages, you're asking for a value to be assigned to something - in particular, you're asking for the value on the right to be assigned to the variable on the left. The use of "=" is slightly unfortunate, since a better operator might look like this:

Since the value of "5" can't be changed, it's a syntax error to do it the other way around.

wapcaplet
Guru
very well put thank you it makes a lot more sense now
nige