reverse (left) arrow in an algorithm?

Question

There is a algorithm, in which author has written steps of algorithm like this,

1.initialization:set up the threshold (th) and maximum iteration number, $I$.

$i\leftarrow 0$

2.calculate x

while (x>th) do

$i\leftarrow i+1$

...

end while

what does this left arrow means here?

Answer 1

It means "set", or assignment. So in most syntax, those lines are i = 0 and i = i + 1. This was probably avoided because in math, $=$ means ==, and assignment isn't a useful concept.