Unit 1 and Unit 2 Vocab

Software Engineer

A person who Designs, develops, and tests software for home, school, and business use

algorithm

 a finite set of instructions that accomplish a task

sequencing

defines an order for when steps in a process are completed

class header

consists of the class keyword and the name of the class

comment

a text note to explain or annotate the code and is 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

attribute

a characteristic of an object

behavior

an action that an object can perform

class

 a programmer-defined blueprint from which objects are created

object

an instance of a class

object-oriented programming

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

constructor

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

instantiate

to call the constructor to create an object

dot operator

used to call a method in a class

method

a named set of instructions to perform a task

argument

the specific value provided when a method or constructor is called

parameter

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

string literal

a sequence of characters enclosed in quotation marks ( " " )

inheritance

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

subclass

a class that extends a superclass and inherits its attributes and behaviors

superclass

a class that can be extended to create subclasses

tester class

the class that contains the main method and from where the program starts running

method signature

consists of a name and parameter list

return

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

return type

the value returned before a method completes its execution and exits

void

specifies that a method should not have a return value

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 purpose and functionality of code

postcondition

 a condition that must always be true just after execution of a code segment

precondition

a condition that must always be true just before the execution of a code segment

programming style

a set of guidelines and best practices for formatting program code

data type

 the format of the data that can be stored in a variable

declaration

giving a name and data type to a variable

variable

a container that stores a value in memory

constructor signature

 the first line of the constructor which includes the public keyword, the constructor name, and any parameters

default value

a predefined value that is used by a program when the user does not provide a value

no-argument constructor

a constructor with no parameters

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 to assign values to an object's instance variables

state

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

application program interface (API)

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

shortcut 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

escape sequence

starts with a \ to indicate how to display a String

override

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

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 expressi

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