Final answer:
The assignment operator is used to change the value of a variable in programming, not to check for equality, inequality, or identity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The purpose of the assignment operator is d) to change the value of a variable. In programming, the assignment operator is used to assign a value to a variable. For example, in the statement x = 5, the assignment operator (=) is used to assign the value of 5 to the variable x. This does not check for equality, inequality, or identity, but rather it updates or initializes the value of a variable. Checking for equality is typically done with a comparison operator such as ==, which compares two values to see if they are equivalent.