CODEWITHSUNDEEP
terminology
Vag
Vag

Reputation: 241

What is a 'value' in the context of programming?

Can you suggest a precise definition for a 'value' within the context of programming without reference to specific encoding techniques or particular languages or architectures?

[Previous question text, for discussion reference: "What is value in programming? How to define this word precisely?"]

Upvotes: 6

Views: 11789

Answers (7)

AestesKEI
AestesKEI

Reputation: 1

Value = Value is what we call the "contents" that was stored in the variable

Variables = containers for storing data values

Example: Think of a folder named "Movies"(Variables) and inside of it are it contents which are namely; Pirates of the Carribean, Fantastic Beast, and Lala land, (this in turn is what we now call it's Values )

Upvotes: 0

Yunq Hero
Yunq Hero

Reputation: 31

In short, a value is some assigned meaning to a variable (the object containing the value)

For example type=boolean; name=help; variable=a storage location; value=what is stored in that location;

Further break down:

X = 2; where X is a variable while 2 is the value stored in X.

Upvotes: 3

Gian
Gian

Reputation: 13955

I just happened to be glancing through Pierce's "Types and Programming Languages" - he slips a reasonably precise definition of "value" in a programming context into the text:

[...] defines a subset of terms, called values, that are possible final results of evaluation

This seems like a rather tidy definition - i.e., we take the set of all possible terms, and the ones that can possibly be left over after all evaluation has taken place are values.

Upvotes: 8

Gian
Gian

Reputation: 13955

Based on the ongoing comments about "bits" being an unacceptable definition, I think this one is a little better (although possibly still flawed):

A value is anything representable on a piece of possibly-infinite Turing machine tape.

Edit: I'm refining this some more.

A value is a member of the set of possible interpretations of any possibly-infinite sequence of symbols.

That is equivalent to the earlier definition based on Turing machine tape, but it actually generalises better.

Upvotes: 5

mqp
mqp

Reputation: 71985

Here, I'll take a shot: A value is a piece of stored information (in the information-theoretical sense) that can be manipulated by the computer.

(I won't say that a value has meaning; a random number in a register may have no meaning, but it's still a value.)

Upvotes: 5

Wayne Werner
Wayne Werner

Reputation: 51847

Read the Wiki

Upvotes: 0

Macmade
Macmade

Reputation: 54000

Have you checked the article in wikipedia?

In computer science, a value is a sequence of bits that is interpreted according to some data type. It is possible for the same sequence of bits to have different values, depending on the type used to interpret its meaning. For instance, the value could be an integer or floating point value, or a string.

Upvotes: 0

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