Question

Consider the program shown in Display \(12.5 .\) Could we use the name greeting in place of big_greeting?

Short answer

Answer: No, if we use the name 'greeting' in place of 'big_greeting', it will conflict with the existing 'greeting' variable, and the output of the program would change. To maintain the same logic and output of the original program, it is better not to use 'greeting' in place of 'big_greeting'.

Step-by-step solution

Understand the given problem

The exercise is asking if we can replace the variable 'big_greeting' with 'greeting' in the program shown in Display 12.5. To address this, we need to understand the context in which both variables are being used within the program.

Analyze the variable names usage

In Python, variable names are case sensitive, so 'greeting' and 'big_greeting' are treated as distinct variables. We need to check if replacing 'big_greeting' with 'greeting' will cause any conflicts or errors in the program.

Observe the original usage of the variables

Before we can replace 'big_greeting' with 'greeting', let's take a look at their usages in the program. Assume the program is: ```python greeting = "Hello, world!" big_greeting = greeting.upper() print(greeting) print(big_greeting) ``` Here, 'greeting' is a variable that stores the string "Hello, world!", and 'big_greeting' is another variable that stores the uppercased version of the string stored in 'greeting'. The program then prints both strings.

Replace 'big_greeting' with 'greeting'

Now, let's try replacing 'big_greeting' with 'greeting' and see if the program still works correctly: ```python greeting = "Hello, world!" greeting = greeting.upper() print(greeting) print(greeting) ``` In this modified program, we have replaced 'big_greeting' with 'greeting' and are now using the same variable to store both the original and uppercased versions of the string.

Analyze the modified program

In the modified program, 'greeting' is assigned the value of the original string, and then it is updated to store the uppercase version of the original string. The final output of this program is the following: ``` HELLO, WORLD! HELLO, WORLD! ``` You can see that the output is different from the original program, which was: ``` Hello, world! HELLO, WORLD! ```

Conclusion

In conclusion, if we use the name 'greeting' in place of 'big_greeting' in the original program (Display 12.5), it would conflict with the existing 'greeting' variable, and the output would change as well. If you want to keep the same logic and output of the original program, it's better not to use 'greeting' in place of 'big_greeting'.