  We will give a short introduction to discrete or lattice soliton equations,
with the particular example of the Korteweg-de Vries as illustration. We will
discuss briefly how B\"acklund transformations lead to equations that can be
interpreted as discrete equations on a $\mathbb Z^2$ lattice. Hierarchies of
equations and commuting flows are shown to be related to multidimensionality in
the lattice context, and multidimensional consistency is one of the necessary
conditions for integrability. The multidimensional setting also allows one to
construct a Lax pair and a B\"acklund transformation, which in turn leads to a
method of constructing soliton solutions. The relationship between continuous
and discrete equations is discussed from two directions: taking the continuum
limit of a discrete equation and discretizing a continuous equation following
the method of Hirota.
