26. Simple Assignment Operator

The equals (=) sign is used to assign a value to a variable:

def age = 101
def name = "Fred"

In the following code the variable count is assigned the numeric value 10:

def count = 10

If we then wanted to compare count with another value (11) we need to use the == operator:

if (count == 11) println "Count is 11"

Use of = in the comparison will cause a compilation error:

if (count = 11) println "Count is 11"

Rest assured that if you accidentally use the simple assignment operator (=) instead of the equality operator (==) you’ll not be the first in making that mistake.