CSA 3.1-3.4 Vocabulary

CSA Runestone 3.1-3.4 Vocabulary Terms

Abstraction

It is the process of reducing complexity by focusing on the main idea. By hiding details irrelevant to the question at hand and bringing together related and useful details, abstraction reduces complexity and allows one to focus on the idea.

Data Abstraction

It provides a separation between the abstract properties of a data type and the concrete details of its representation. Data abstraction manages complexity by giving data a name without referencing the specific details of the representation. Data can take the form of a single variable or a collection of data, such as in a class or a set of data.

Attribute

A type of data abstraction that is defined in a class outside any method or constructor

Instance Variable

It is an attribute whose value is unique to each instance of the class

Class Variable

It is an attribute shared by all instances of the class

Procedural Abstraction

It provides a name for a process and allows a method to be used only knowing what it does, not how it does it.

Method Decomposition

It is when a programmer breaks down larger behaviors of the class into smaller behaviors by creating methods to represent each individual smaller behavior

Object Oriented Design

start by deciding which classes are needed to solve a problem and then figure out the data and methods in each class

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Formal system for drawing classes

Class Diagrams

way to represent the classes in a program and the data and procedural abstractions found in each class

System Reliability

Refers to the program being able to perform its tasks as expected under stated conditions without failure

Open Source

Free to use

Class

defines a blueprint for creating objects

Object

new instances of a class

Data Encapsulation

a technique in which the implementation details of a class are kept hidden from external classes

Instance Variables

define the attributes or data needed for objects

Methods

define the behaviors or functions of the object

Constructors

initializes the instance variables when the object is created

Access Modifiers

What public and private are and they affect how you can the access classes, data, constructors, and methods

Instance Methods

Define what we can actually do with an object, their behaviors and functions

Private

Only things in the same class as the variable can access it without an accessor method

Parameter List

In parenthesis that declare the variables that will be used to hold the arguments passed when the constructor is called

State

Refers to its attributes and their values at a given time and is defined by instance variables belonging to the object

Valid State

When all objects instance variables have values that let us use the object by invoking its public methods

Default Constructor

When no constructor is written, Java provides a no-parameter constructor, and the instance variables are set to default values according to the data type of the attribute. 0 for int, 0.0 for double, false for boolean, and null for string.

Overloading

When more than one constructor is defined in a class