Variable - Concept of programming language:

Variable: As referencing memory by its physical address is very tedious, variable names are used. A variable is a symbolic name given to a memory location. Once a variable is assigned to a memory location, the programmer can refer to that location by variable name instead of its address. Variable is the connection between a name and a value.   It is composed of a name, attribute, reference and a value. Attribute means the type of value a variable can hold.  

For example the following programming code in C declares variables a & b.    

int a,b;      

char c;  

In the above declaration, a & b are the variable name, which refer to a memory location where integer values can be stored. Instead of address of the memory location, variable names a and b will be used to refer to a memory location in order to store or retriever update its value.  Similarly,  c is a variable name given to a memory location where a character value can be stored. Further c will be used to refer to the memory location in order to store or retrieve or update its value.