Unit 2- Selection and Iteration Vocab

algorithm

a set of instructions that accomplish a task

condition

determines whether or not to execute a block of code

iteration condition

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

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

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 statements

a statement that selects a single action from three or more conditional statements based on which Boolean expressions are 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 variable 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