APCSP Unit 2 Vocab

Lists

an ordered sequence of items

Strings

a sequence of characters (letters, digits, punctuation, etc.) - a substring is just a piece of some existing string

Prototype

a first, typical or preliminary model of something, especially a machine, from which other forms are developed or copied

Expression

a either a constant value (such as "4" or "winter") or a call to a reporter block including its inputs - evaluated to produce a single value

Parameter

the input name, such as number of branches - the input name is set in the block definition. It never changes.

Argument

the input value, such as 6 for a hexagonal pinwheel. The input value is given each time the block is run - it can be a different value each time

Iteration

a repeating program structure

Procedure

a named sequence of instructions that may take inputs and may report a value

Boolean

true or false

Procedural Abstraction

the process of developing a program by breaking up a large problem into smaller sub-problems, to package something complicated into a simply named case under a name that sums up all of its parts

Infinite Loop

When a program keeps running forever, a sequence of computer instructions that repeats forever

Modulus

remainder between two operands

Code Segment

a sequence of connected instructions that carry out a purposeful action, the instructions in the code segment are carried out in order, from top to bottom

Operators

a symbol or keyword that performs a specific operation on one or more operands (values or variables) to produce a result

Readability

ability to read

Traverse

looking at each item of the list

Index

the position of an element in a list, the position of a character in a string

Element

another name for an item in a list

Sublist

a list used as an item of another list

Data Abstraction

creation and use of abstract data types in a program, like lists

Selection

deciding which part of an algorithm to run based on whether a condition is true or false

Conditional

control the code based on a true-or-false condition

Nested Conditional

an if or if else statement inside another if else statement

Return Statement

terminate its execution and send a value back to the calling code