Glossary

Keywords/Reserved Words:

words defined by the C# language and used for one thing

Datatypes:

categories in C# used to define types of values, such as strings

Variable:

values that be changed

Constant:

values that can not be changed

Identifier:

words defined by the programmer to refer to an object or variable.

Operations:

Operators:

symbols used to perform operations

Modulo:

the % used to divide two numbers and return the remainder

Escape Sequence:

used to represent a non-printable character

Reference Types (Objects and Strings):

a variable of a class object holds a reference to the address of the object on the managed heap.

Value Types (all other reserved words):

a variable of a class object stores the exact data value held by the variable

Numeric Types:

Booleans:

a binary datatype that can only be true or false

Decision Structures (if/else/switch):

Control Structures (loops):

Instantiation (instance of a class):

the act of creating a object, an instance of a C# class

Initialization:

the act of both declaring a variable’s datatype and identifier and assigning it value

Declaration:

the act of creating a variable’s datatype and identifier

Assignment:

the act of giving a value to an identifier

Implicit Conversion:

the act of automatically storing the value of one identifier into another identifier that differs from its own

Explicit Conversion (casting):

the act of storing the value of one identifier into another identifier that differs from its own using additional syntax

Rules:

are required syntactical ways to write a program for it to function Conventions:

are not required for the program to function, but are heavily encouraged for the readability and comprehension of other programmers

Format Specifiers (C, N, P, E):

added to variable calls in strings to format the numeric variable in various ways (see link for specifics)

Constructor:

a method used to instantiate an object and assign it’s attributes

Parameter:

any variable declared within a method

Argument:

any value that must passed to a method in order for it to be called

Attribute:

the variables declared within a class to act as the characteristics of any of its instantiated object

Method:

a code block that contains a series of statements

Class Member (attributes and methods):

anything defined within a class that can be access within and outside of the class

Scope:

Time and place in program where the variable exists

Iterator:

an object that traverses an array or list

Sentinel Value:

a special value in the context of an algorithm which uses its presence as a condition of termination, typically in a loop or recursive algorithm.

Guard Condition:

boolean expressions (predicates) found at the top of a method or function that determine whether the function should continue to execute.

Accumulator:

Counter:

a variable used to count the number of times a certain condition is met

Complex Condition:

a condition consisting of multiple conditions

Method Signature:

the way a computer reads a method by its name and the datatype of its parameters

Method Overloading:

the act of creating multiple methods with the same signature

Return Type:

the datatype of any value returned from a called method

UML Diagram:

a written diagram used to display a class and all of its members

Input Validation:

whenever a program checks if the user gave a usable input and responds accordingly to avoid errors implementation