often used seldom defined terms: lvalue

Question

What is an lvalue?

Answer 1

The "L" in lvalue is usually described as standing for "location". An lvalue specifies the location of something; as another answerer pointed out, lvalues can typically have their address taken. This is why numeric literals and non-reference function return values are not lvalues.

The L used to stand for "left" until const was introduced into C++. Const lvalues cannot appear on the left hand side of an assignment.