Comp Sci A Unit 1 Vocab

for that first weird test

class

a programmer-defined blueprint from which objects are created; a list of attributes and instructions for how to create an instance of itself

Defining a class

defining the characteristics your class has and what objects in your class can do

behaviors

actions that an object can perform

Attributes

characteristics of an object

Object

An instance of the class

Instantiate

To call the constructor to an object

Constructor

a block of code that has the same name as the class and tells the computer how to create a new object

State

The attributes represented by the object’s instance variables

Used to represent behaviors

methods

Method

a set of instructions to perform a task

Dot operator

Used to call a method in class

String literal

a sequence of characters enclosed in quotation marks (“)

Argument

the specific value provided when a method or constructor is called

Control structure

a conditional or iteration statement which affect the flow on the problem

Iteration statement

a control structure that repeatedly executes a block of code repeatedly as long as a condition is true

Algorithm

a finite set of instructions that accomplish a task

Condition

determines whether or not to execute a block of code

What will a while loop always do

make decisions about whether or not to run the code in the body of the loop

Inheritance

an object-oriented programming principle where a subclass inherits the attributes and behaviors of a super class

Superclass

a class that can be extended to create subclasses

Subclass

a class that extends a super-class and inherits its attributes and behaviors

Tester class

The class that contains the main method from where the programs starts running

Method signature:

consists of a name and parameter list

Return type

the value returned before a method completes its execution and exits

Void

specifies that a method should not have a return value

“Public”

makes method accessible from anywhere

“Void”

Indicates that method has no value

Parameter

defines the type of value to receive when a method or constructor is called

Selection argument

a statement that only executes when a condition is true

Variables

a container that stores a value in memory, can only hold one value at a time

Data type

the format of the data that can be assigned to variable

How do you declare a variable

you write the data type and the name of the variable

Declaration

giving a name and data type to a variable

Concatenation

Joining two strings together

System.out.println()

prints the string and moves it to the next linede

decomposition

the process of breaking a problem down into smaller parts to write methods for each part

efficient

getting the best outcome with the least amount of waste

redundant code

code that is unnecessary

pseudocode

a plain language description of the steps in an algorithm

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

logical operator

an operator that returns a Boolean value

Selection statement

a statement that only executes when a condition is true

software engineer

a person who designs, develops and tests software for home school, and business use

class header

consists of the class keyword and the name of the class

comment

a text note to explain or annotate the code and ignored when the program is run

source code

a collection of programming commands

syntax

the rules for how a programmer must write code for a computer to understand

syntax error

a mistake in the code that does not follow a programming language’s syntax

object-oriented programming

an approach to creating and using models of physical or imagined objects

return

to exit a method and go back to the point in the program that called it with the requested value information

code review

the process of examining code and providing feedback to improve the quality and functionality of the program

commit

an operation which saves the latest changes of the code and represents a snapshot of a project

documentation

written descriptions of the code purpose and functionality of code

programming style

a set of guidelines and best practices for formatting program code

syntax error

a mistake in the code that does not follow a programming language’s syntax