Hi Joe, Syntactically, ":=" is not an operator because it does not produce an output sequence of items like "+" or "and" or "/". It is part of let and group-by clauses (which produce tuples) as well as variable and context item declarations (which contribute to the dynamic context).
>From a pedagogical perspective, I would simply call it a variable binding, the important part being not to call it "assignment" to make clear that it is a functional and declarative language. I hope these 2 cents help! Kind regards, Ghislain On Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 1:01 AM Joe Wicentowski <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > I could've sworn that ":=" had a name like "binding operator," but as far > as I can see from the XPath or XQuery specs, it gives no name or > description to this symbol other than appearances in EBNFs for LetBinding, > GroupingSpec, VarDecl, and ContextItemDecl -- as a literal ":=". > > Does ":=" really have no name or plain English description in the spec? > > If so, this is surprising given its prominence in the let clause. Having > one would certainly be very useful when teaching the language. > > Thanks, > Joe > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] > http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk >
_______________________________________________ [email protected] http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk
