Unit 7 Vocabulary: Parameters and Algorithms

API

Application Program Interface - specifications for how functions in a library behave and can be used.

Argument

the value passed to the parameter.

Binary Search

a search algorithm that finds the position of a target value within a sorted list by comparing the target value to the middle element of the list. If they are not equal, the half in which the target cannot lie is eliminated and the search continues with the remaining half, again taking the middle element to compare to the target value, and repeating this until the target is found or until the remaining half is empty.

Library

a group of functions (procedures) that may be used in creating new programs.

Linear Search

a method for finding the position of a target value within a list by sequentially checking each element of the list until a match is found or the entire list has been searched.

Modularity

the subdivision of a computer program into separate subprograms.

Parameter

a variable in a function definition. Used as a placeholder for values that will be passed through the function.

Procedural abstraction

a process that allows a procedure to be used only knowing what it does, not how it does it. Procedural abstraction allows a solution to a large problem to be based on the solution of smaller subproblems. This is accomplished by creating procedures to solve each of the subproblems.

Return

used to return the flow of control to the point where the procedure (also known as a function) was called and to return the value of an expression.