MCS-201 Programming in C and Python - Block 1 Vocabulary Flashcards

A complete list of vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, definitions, and concepts from MCS-201 Block 1 (Units 1 to 4).

Python

A high-level, general-purpose, interpreted programming language that is dynamically typed, garbage-collected, and supports structured, object-oriented, and functional programming paradigms.

Source Program

The set of instructions written in a high-level language used to code a problem to find its solution.

Object Program

A machine language program produced after a compiler or interpreter translates a source program without errors.

Algorithm

A finite set of steps defining the solution of a particular problem, expressed in pseudocode that is language independent, well structured, and detailed.

Top-Down Design

An algorithm design technique, also known as stepwise refinement, that takes general statements about a solution and repeatedly breaks them down into more precise subtasks.

Flowchart

A graphical representation of an algorithm that uses standardized symbols connected to indicate the flow of control and processing.

Low Level Languages

Machine-oriented programming languages whose design is governed by the circuitry and structure of a specific computer, making them machine-dependent.

High Level Languages

Problem-oriented programming languages designed to describe procedures concisely and unambiguously, allowing application programs to run on various machine-independent platforms.

C Language

A general-purpose, structured programming language created by Dennis Ritchie in $1972$ at AT&T Bell Laboratories, often referred to as a middle-level language because it combines high-level elements with assembly functionality.

Syntax Errors

Errors that occur when a program violates the predefined grammatical rules of the programming language during compilation.

Semantic Errors

Errors displayed as warnings during compilation when a statement has no meaning or effect, such as declaring a variable without using it.

Linker

A program that combines separately compiled object code with object code from the standard C library to produce a single executable program file with an extension of $.exe$.

Debugging

The process of identifying and removing errors from a computer program.

Logical Errors

Program errors where the program executes without crashing but yields incorrect results due to mistakes in program logic.

Runtime Errors

Errors detected during program execution that cause the program to halt abruptly, such as a division by zero.

Identifiers

Names given to various program elements such as constants, variables, function names, and arrays.

Keywords

Reserved words in C that have standard, predefined meanings and cannot be used as program-defined identifiers.

Variable

A named data storage location in computer memory whose stored value can change during program execution.

Constant

An identifier or value that remains fixed throughout the execution of a program.

Octal Integer Constant

An integer constant consisting of digits $0$ through $7$, which must begin with a leading zero $0$.

Hexadecimal Integer Constant

An integer constant in base $16$ consisting of digits $0$ through $9$ and letters $A$ to $F$, prefixed with $0x$ or $0X$.

Symbolic Constant

A name defined using the preprocessor directive #define that substitutes a specific sequence of characters or numeric values throughout the source code.

Enumerated Data Type

A user-defined type in C specified with the enum keyword that lists predefined symbolic constants automatically assigned integer values starting from $0$.

typedef

A keyword used in C language to assign a new name or alias to an existing data type.

Modulus Operator

An integer arithmetic operator represented by % that yields the remainder after integer division between two integer operands.

Conditional Operator

C's only ternary operator, written as ?:, which evaluates a condition and returns one of two expression values based on whether the condition is true or false.

Comma Operator

An operator used to separate a sequence of expressions, evaluating them from left to right, where the value and type of the rightmost expression become the overall result.

Cast Operator

An unary operator used to explicitly force an expression or variable to be converted to a specified data type.

sizeof Operator

A compile-time unary operator that computes and returns the size of an object or data type in bytes.

Entry-Control Loop

A loop structure, such as the while loop, that evaluates its test condition before executing the loop body.

Exit-Control Loop

A loop structure, such as the do...while loop, that tests its condition at the end of the loop body, guaranteeing that the body executes at least once.

break Statement

A control statement used inside loops or switch constructs to jump execution immediately to the next statement following the loop.

continue Statement

A loop control statement that bypasses the remainder of the current loop iteration and passes control to the beginning of the next loop iteration.

goto Statement

A control transfer statement that alters execution flow by transferring control unconditionally to a specified labeled statement within the program.

Array

A homogeneous data structure storing a fixed-size group of elements of the same data type in contiguous memory locations under a single variable name.

Subscript

An integer constant or variable index enclosed in square brackets [] used to access individual elements of an array, ranging from $0$ to $\text{SIZE} - 1$.

String

A single-dimensional array of characters terminated by a null character \0.

Null Character

A special character written as \0 with an ASCII value of $0$ that marks the end of a string in C.

strlen

A standard library function in <string.h> that returns the length of a string excluding the null character.

strcpy

A string function used to copy the content of one string into another string.

strcmp

A function that compares two strings character by character and returns $0$ if they are equal, or an integer representing their ASCII character difference.

strcat

A string library function used to append the characters of a second string onto the end of a first string.