Computer Science Concepts and Terminology

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering foundational computer science terms, data structures, and control flow concepts from the lecture notes.

Procedures

A named sequence of instructions that may take inputs and may report a value. Some languages call procedures methods or functions.

List

An ordered sequence of items.

Strings

An ordered sequence of characters.

Prototype

A function declaration, an object inheritance mechanism, or an early model of software.

Expression

A constant value or a call to a reporter block, including its inputs.

Parameter

The input name set in a procedure or block definition. Also called a formal parameter; the name stays the same each time the block runs.

Argument

The actual input value supplied when a procedure or block runs. Also called an actual argument; the value can be different each time.

Iteration

A repeating program structure, also called looping or repetition. Code may repeat forever, a specific number of times, or until a condition is met.

Boolean

A value that is either true or false.

Predicate

A reporter that asks a true-or-false question and reports a Boolean value.

Abstraction

Hiding details so you can focus on the important parts of a problem.

Procedural Abstraction

Uses named procedures to break a large problem into smaller subproblems.

Infinite Loop

A sequence of computer instructions that repeats forever.

Modulus

An operation that finds the remainder left over after dividing one number by another.

Code Segment

A sequence of connected instructions that carries out a purposeful action. Instructions run in order, from top to bottom.

Operators

Symbols or keywords that tell the computer to perform a specific action on one or more values, called operands.

Readability

How easily and quickly a developer can read, understand, and modify source code.

Traverse

To look at each item in a list. Traversal uses iteration; a for-each loop visits items without explicitly using index numbers.

Index

The position number of an item in a list or a character in a string. In Snap! and AP exam pseudocode, list indices start at 1 and cannot exceed the list length.

Element

An item in a list. Each element has a unique index (position); repeated values still count as separate elements.

Sublist

A list used as an item of another list. The term can also refer to a portion of a list.

Data Abstraction

The creation and use of abstract data types in a program, hiding details of how the data is represented and accessed.

Selection

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

Conditionals

Statements, such as if and if-else, that control which code runs based on a true-or-false condition.

Nested Conditionals

An if or if-else statement inside another conditional statement.

Return Statement

An instruction that ends a function and passes control, and often a value, back to the code that called it.