| A | B |
|---|
| Fixed value | A variable initialised without any calculation and not changed thereafter |
| Stepper | Variable moving through a systematic predictable succession of values, e.g. during iterations, a variable is used to keep a count of the number of repititions |
| Most recent holder | A variable holding the latest value encountered when processing a succession of unpredictable values or simply the latest value obtained as an input |
| Most wanted holder | A variable holding the most appropriate value encountered so far |
| Gatherer | A variable accumulating the effect of individual values. |
| Transformation | A variable that always gets its new value from a fixed calculation of values of other variables |
| Follower | A variable that gets its new value from the old value of some other data item |
| Temporary | A variable holding some value for a short time only |
