Unit 2 Vocab

Actual parameter

The value to assign to the formal parameter

Call by value

Copying the value of the actual parameter to the constructor's formal parameter

Formal parameter

The value to be passed to a constructor or method

Local variable

A variable declared and accessible within a specific block of code

Overloading

Defining two or more constructors or methods with the same name but different signatures

Parameterized constructor

A constructor that has a specific number of arguments to be passed

State

The attributes of an object that are represented by its instance variables

Application program interface

A library of prewritten classes

Library

A collection of methods or reusable components of code

Assignment

Using the assignment operator ( = ) to initialize or change the value stored in a variable

Initialization

Giving a starting value to a variable using the assignment operator ( = )

Literal

A source code representation of a value, such as a number or text

Primitive type

A basic data type that Java predefines

Reference Type

A data type that contains a pointer to the memory location of an object

Compound assignment operator

Ahortcut syntax to perform an operation on both operands and assign the result into the variable on the left

Compound expression

A combination of expressions

Concatenation

When two Strings are joined together

Expression

A combination of data and operators that evaluates to a single value

Operand

The data that is operated on

Truncate

To cut off data from the end

Overflow error

An error that occurs when an operation makes an integer value greater than its maximum

Round-off error

An error due to limited floating-point precision, causing discrepancies in computation

Underflow error

An error that occurs when an operation makes an integer value less than its minimum

Escape sequence

Starts with a \ to indicate how to display a String

Constant

A variable whose value cannot be changed once it has been assigned

Algorithm

A finite set of instructions that accomplish a task

Condition

Determines whether or not to execute a block of code

Iteration statement

A control structure that repeatedly executes a block of code

Selection statement

A statement that only executes when a condition is true

Logical operator

An operator that returns a Boolean value

Two-way selection statement

Specifies a block of code to execute when the condition is true and a block of code to execute when the condition is false

Alias

A reference variable that points to the same object as another reference variable

Nested conditional statement

A conditional statement nested inside of another conditional statement

Compound Boolean expression

An expression using logical operators that evaluates to a Boolean value

Short-circuited evaluation

A process in which the evaluation of a logical expression exits when the result is clear, even before the complete evaluation of the expression

Truth table

A table used to determine the truth values of a Boolean expression

De Morgan's Laws

A set of rules that describe how to simplify complex Boolean expressions

Multi-selection statement

A statement that selects a single action from three or more conditional statements based on which Boolean expression is true

Decrement

To decrease a value by one

Increment

To increase a value by one

Loop control variable

A variable that is changed by a constant value and determines the end of a loop

Off-by-one error

An error that occurs when a loop repeats one time too many or one time too few

Nested loop

A loop inside of another loop

Override

To define a method in a subclass with the same method signature as a method inherited from a superclass