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Glossary

1 September, 2015 - 15:37

value: One of the basic units of data, like a number or string, that a program manipulates.

type: A category of values. The types we have seen so far are integers (type int), floating-point numbers (type float), and strings (type str).

integer: A type that represents whole numbers.

oating-point: A type that represents numbers with fractional parts.

string: A type that represents sequences of characters.

variable: A name that refers to a value.

statement: A section of code that represents a command or action. So far, the statements we have seen are assignments and print statements.

assignment: A statement that assigns a value to a variable.

state diagram: A graphical representation of a set of variables and the values they refer to.

keyword: A reserved word that is used by the compiler to parse a program; you cannot use keywords like if, def, and while as variable names.

operator: A special symbol that represents a simple computation like addition, multiplication, or string concatenation.

operand: One of the values on which an operator operates.

oor division: The operation that divides two numbers and chops off the fraction part.

expression: A combination of variables, operators, and values that represents a single result value.

evaluate: To simplify an expression by performing the operations in order to yield a single value.

rules of precedence: The set of rules governing the order in which expressions involving multiple operators and operands are evaluated.

concatenate: To join two operands end-to-end.

comment: Information in a program that is meant for other programmers (or anyone reading the source code) and has no effect on the execution of the program.