msg.sender

In Solidity, there are certain global variables that are available to all functions. One of these is msg.sender, which refers to the addressof the person (or smart contract) who called the current function.

In Solidity, function execution always needs to start with an external caller. A contract will just sit on the blockchain doing nothing until someone calls one of its functions. So there will always be a msg.sender.

Here's an example of using msg.sender and updating a mapping:

mapping (address => uint) favoriteNumber;

function setMyNumber(uint _myNumber) public {
  // Update our `favoriteNumber` mapping to store `_myNumber` under `msg.sender`
  favoriteNumber[msg.sender] = _myNumber;
  // ^ The syntax for storing data in a mapping is just like with arrays
}

function whatIsMyNumber() public view returns (uint) {
  // Retrieve the value stored in the sender's address
  // Will be `0` if the sender hasn't called `setMyNumber` yet
  return favoriteNumber[msg.sender];
}

In this trivial example, anyone could call setMyNumberand store a uintin our contract, which would be tied to their address. Then when they called whatIsMyNumber, they would be returned the uint that they stored.

Using msg.sender gives you the security of the Ethereum blockchain — the only way someone can modify someone else's data would be to steal the private key associated with their Ethereum address.