AP Computer Science Java Vocabulary Review

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to AP Computer Science concepts in Java.

Class

A blueprint for creating objects, defining instance variables and methods.

Object

An instance of a class that contains state (attributes) and behavior (methods).

Constructor

A special method called when an object is instantiated that initializes the object's properties.

Inheritance

The mechanism by which one class can inherit fields and methods from another class.

Polymorphism

The ability of different objects to respond, each in its own way, to identical messages.

Encapsulation

The bundling of data (attributes) and methods that operate on that data into a single unit, or class.

Interface

A reference type in Java that can contain only constants, method signatures, default methods, static methods, and nested types.

Exception

An event that disrupts the normal flow of the program's instructions.

Method Overloading

A technique where multiple methods have the same name but different parameters.

Array

A container object that holds a fixed number of values of a single type.

ArrayList

A resizable array implementation of the List interface in Java.

String

A sequence of characters; in Java, strings are objects and are immutable.

Recursion

A programming technique where a method calls itself to solve a problem.

Math Class

A class that contains methods for performing basic numeric operations such as exponentiation and logarithms.

Access Modifiers

Keywords that determine the visibility or accessibility of classes, methods, and variables (e.g., public, private).

Javadoc

A tool that generates HTML documentation from comments in the Java source code.