assignment

An assignment is a task or piece of work assigned to someone as part of a larger program, or the act of transferring a right or property from one party to another. The word derives from the Latin assignare, to mark out or appoint.

In education, an assignment is a task given by a teacher to a student, intended to be completed outside the classroom. Assignments evaluate understanding, develop skills, and provide feedback. They take forms such as essays, problem sets, lab reports, or projects. They are governed by deadlines and assessment criteria; plagiarism and improper attribution are common concerns.

In law and business, assignment refers to the transfer of rights or property from one person (the assignor) to another (the assignee). Common examples include assignment of contractual rights, mortgages, or intellectual property. The transfer usually requires notice and may be restricted by contract, with non-assignment clauses or limitations on personal service.

In mathematics and computer science, an assignment problem is a type of optimization problem where tasks are matched to agents at minimum cost or maximum benefit, often modeled as a bipartite graph and solved by the Hungarian algorithm.

In programming, assignment is the operation of storing a value in a variable, using an assignment operator such as '=' in many languages.