AP CSP Unit 3 Vocabulary

procedure

a named collection of steps in an algorithm that can be reused anytime it is needed without restating the detailed procedures (abstraction)

concatenation

chaining together or placing two or more separate things side by side so that they are treated as one.

string

a linear sequence of characters, words, or other data

dichotomous

in which something can only be one thing or another (yes or no)

binary code

code represented with the two symbols of 1 and 0

bits

the foundation for digital computing (1s and 0s) - short for binary digits

digital

how information is stored, accessed, transformed and used by computers

state space

the space of potential possibilities

exponential growth

the rate of growth that rapidly increases in proportion to the growing total number or size.

decimal

describes the base-10 number system. The most commonly used number system.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

a table that outlines a common set of conventions established for converting between binary values and alphanumeric (represents 128 different characters)

alphanumeric

the characters that consists of uppercase and lowercase letters in addition to numerals 0-9.

digital noise

irrelevant or meaningless data that has found its way into otherwise meaningful code.

abstraction

the process of removing or suppressing details to create a manageable level of complexity.

bit string

a sequence of bits that can be used to represent sets or to manipulate binary data.

mapping

associating each element of a given set with one or more elements of a second set.

data

characters, symbols or quantities on which operations are performed, stored and/or transmitted by a computer.

unicode

a binary encoding system that can represent much more of the world's text than ASCII can (represents 65,536 different characters)

hexadecimal

a base-16 number system utilizing numbers 0-9 and letters A-F used to represent eight binary digits or one byte.

Morse Code

a code where letters are represented by combinations of long and short signals of light or sound.

Baudot Code

a binary code invented by Emile Baudot in 1870 that uses crosses and dots in order to encode 2^5 or 32 characters.

variable-width encoding

using codes of different lengths to encode a character set for representation (example: Morse Code)

fixed-width encoding

using codes with a fixed width to encode a character set for representation (example: Baudot Code)

discrete

separate or divided (digital)

continuous

unbroken, without interruption (analog)

approximation

digital copies are only approximations of the natural object.

analog

non-digital signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position or voltage.

list

a data structure (also called an array) that stores multiple pieces of information at once.

data structure

a particular way of organizing and storing data such as an array, table, etc.

index value

the representation of the location of each item in a list.

output

observable behaviors generated by the computer such as animation, sound, and text.

join

block in Scratch that concatenates, or links two values together. Example: "hello" and "there" would result in "hellothere".

linear search

a method for finding a target value within a list (whether presorted or not) by checking each value until a match is found or until all the elements have been searched.

substring

a subset of a string of alphanumeric fields or variables.