title: How can this form of variable assignment work?
body: <p>What kind of variable assignment syntax is this? Please explain why this code works the way it does and <em>how</em>? It seems that the variables are assigned without the <code>=</code> operator. Any subsequent tests reveal that <code>pi_num</code> returns <code>3.14</code>. Why?</p>
  
  <pre><code>  #define SPECIAL_NUMBER 3.14
    cout &lt;&lt; "Special number is " &lt;&lt; SPECIAL_NUMBER &lt;&lt; endl;
    #define SPECIAL_VARIABLE pi_num
    float SPECIAL_VARIABLE = SPECIAL_NUMBER;
    cout &lt;&lt; "Pi: " &lt;&lt; pi_num &lt;&lt; endl;
  </code></pre>