Jeanette is assigning a beginning value to each variable in her program. This is known as:

• A. Initializing
• B. Looping
• C. Compiling
• D. Assigning

Answer: (A)

Setting an initial value for variables is called initialization. It means giving each variable its starting value when the program begins or just before it’s used, so the program has a defined starting state. For example, you might declare a counter and set it to zero at the start (x = 0 or int x = 0, depending on the language). Later, changing that value again would be an assignment, not initialization. The other terms don’t fit: looping is about repeating actions, compiling is translating code into executable form, and assigning can refer to giving a value at any time, not specifically the first value.