Python vocabulary

problem solving

The process of formulating a problem, finding a solution, and expressing the solution.

high-level language

A programming language like Python that is designed to be easy for humans to read and write.

low-level language

A programming language that is designed to be easy for a computer to execute; also called
“machine language” or “assembly language.”

portability

A property of a program that can run on more than one kind of computer.

interpret

To execute a program in a high-level language by translating it one line at a time.

compile

To translate a program written in a high-level language into a low-level language all at once, in
preparation for later execution.

source code

A program in a high-level language before being compiled.

object code

The output of the compiler after it translates the program.

executable

Another name for object code that is ready to be executed.

prompt

Characters displayed by the interpreter to indicate that it is ready to take input from the user.

script

A program stored in a file (usually one that will be interpreted).

interactive mode

A way of using the Python interpreter by typing commands and expressions at the prompt.

script mode

A way of using the Python interpreter to read and execute statements in a script.

program

A set of instructions that specifies a computation.

algorithm
A general process for solving a category of problems.

bug

An error in a program.

debugging

The process of finding and removing any of the three kinds of programming errors.

syntax

The structure of a program.

syntax error

An error in a program that makes it impossible to parse (and therefore impossible to

interpret).

exception

An error that is detected while the program is running.

semantics

The meaning of a program.

semantic error

An error in a program that makes it do something other than what the programmer intended.

natural language

Any one of the languages that people speak that evolved naturally.

formal language

Any one of the languages that people have designed for specific purposes, such as
representing mathematical ideas or computer programs; all programming languages are
_______ .

token

One of the basic elements of the syntactic structure of a program, analogous to a word in a
natural language.

parse

To examine a program and analyze the syntactic structure.

print statement

An instruction that causes the Python interpreter to display a value on the screen.
Level 2

Chapter 2: Variables, expressions and statements

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value
One of the basic units of data, like a number or string, that a program
manipulates.
type
A category of values.
integer
A type that represents whole numbers.
floating-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.
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.
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.
floor 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.

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Chapter 3: Functions

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function
A named sequence of statements that performs some useful operation. It
may or may not take arguments and may or may not produce a result.
function definition
A statement that creates a new function, specifying its name, parameters,
and the statements it executes.
function object
A value created by a function definition. The name of the function is a
variable that refers to it.
header
The first line of a function definition.
body
The sequence of statements inside a function definition.
parameter
A name used inside a function to refer to the value passed as an argument.
function call
A statement that executes a function. It consists of the function name
followed by an argument list.
argument
A value provided to a function when the function is called. This value is
assigned to the corresponding parameter in the function.
local variable
A variable defined inside a function. It can only be used inside its function.
return value
The result of a function. If a function call is used as an expression, it is the
value of the expression.
fruitful function
A function that returns a value.
void function
A function that doesn’t return a value.
module
A file that contains a collection of related functions and other definitions.
import statement
A statement that reads a module file and creates a module object.
module object
A value created by an import statement that provides access to the values
defined in a module.
dot notation
The syntax for calling a function in another module by specifying the
module name followed by a dot (period) and the function name.
composition
Using an expression as part of a larger expression, or a statement as part of
a larger statement.
flow of execution
The order in which statements are executed during a program run.
stack diagram
A graphical representation of a stack of functions, their variables, and the
values they refer to.
frame
A box in a stack diagram that represents a function call. It contains the local
variables and parameters of the function.
traceback
A list of the functions that are executing, printed when an exception occurs.
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instance
A member of a set.
loop
A part of a program that can execute repeatedly.
encapsulation
The process of transforming a sequence of statements into a function
definition.
generalization
The process of replacing something unnecessarily specific (like a number)
with something appropriately general (like a variable or parameter).
keyword argument
An argument that includes the name of the parameter as a “keyword.”
interface
A description of how to use a function, including the name and descriptions
of the arguments and return value.
refactoring
The process of modifying a working program to improve function interfaces
and other qualities of the code.
development plan
A process for writing programs.
docstring
A string that appears in a function definition to document the function’s
interface.
precondition
A requirement that should be satisfied by the caller before a function starts.
postcondition
A requirement that should be satisfied by the function before it ends.
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Chapter 5: Conditionals and recursion

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modulus operator
An operator, denoted with a percent sign (%), that works on integers and
yields the remainder when one number is divided by another.
boolean expression
An expression whose value is either True or False.
relational operator
One of the operators that compares its operands: ==, !=, >, <, >=, and <=.
logical operator
One of the operators that combines boolean expressions: and, or, and not.
conditional statement
A statement that controls the flow of execution depending on some
condition.
condition
The boolean expression in a conditional statement that determines which
branch is executed.
compound statement
A statement that consists of a header and a body. The header ends with a
colon (:). The body is indented relative to the header.
branch
One of the alternative sequences of statements in a conditional statement.
chained conditional
A conditional statement with a series of alternative branches.
nested conditional
A conditional statement that appears in one of the branches of another
conditional statement.
recursion
The process of calling the function that is currently executing.
base case
A conditional branch in a recursive function that does not make a recursive
call.
infinite recursion
A recursion that doesn’t have a base case, or never reaches it. Eventually, it
causes a runtime error.

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Chapter 6: Fruitful functions

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temporary variable
A variable used to store an intermediate value in a complex calculation.
dead code
Part of a program that can never be executed, often because it appears
after a return statement.
None
A special value returned by functions that have no return statement or a
return statement without an argument.
incremental development
A program development plan intended to avoid debugging by adding and
testing only a small amount of code at a time.
scaffolding
Code that is used during program development but is not part of the final
version.
guardian
A programming pattern that uses a conditional statement to check for and
handle circumstances that might cause an error.

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Chapter 7: Iteration
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multiple assignment
Making more than one assignment to the same variable during the
execution of a program.
update
An assignment where the new value of the variable depends on the old.
initialization
An assignment that gives an initial value to a variable that will be updated.
increment
An update that increases the value of a variable (often by one).
decrement
An update that decreases the value of a variable.
iteration
Repeated execution of a set of statements using either a recursive function
call or a loop.
infinite loop
A loop in which the terminating condition is never satisfied.

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Chapter 8: Strings

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object
Something a variable can refer to. For now, you can use “object” and “value”
interchangeably.
sequence
An ordered set; that is, a set of values where each value is identified by an
integer index.
item
One of the values in a sequence.
index
An integer value used to select an item in a sequence, such as a character in
a string.
slice
A part of a string specified by a range of indices.
empty string
A string with no characters and length 0, represented by two quotation
marks.
immutable
The property of a sequence whose items cannot be assigned.
traverse
To iterate through the items in a sequence, performing a similar operation
on each.
search
A pattern of traversal that stops when it finds what it is looking for.
counter
A variable used to count something, usually initialized to zero and then
incremented.
method
A function that is associated with an object and called using dot notation.
invocation
A statement that calls a method.

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Chapter 9: Case study - word play

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file object
A value that represents an open file.
problem recognition
A way of solving a problem by expressing it as an instance of a previously-
solved problem.
special case
A test case that is atypical or non-obvious (and less likely to be handled
correctly).

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Chapter 10: Lists

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list
A sequence of values.
element
One of the values in a list (or other sequence), also called items.
index
An integer value that indicates an element in a list.
nested list
A list that is an element of another list.
list traversal
The sequential accessing of each element in a list.
mapping
A relationship in which each element of one set corresponds to an element
of another set. For example, a list is a mapping from indices to elements.
accumulator
A variable used in a loop to add up or accumulate a result.
augmented assignment
A statement that updates the value of a variable using an operator like +=.
reduce
A processing pattern that traverses a sequence and accumulates the
elements into a single result.
map
A processing pattern that traverses a sequence and performs an operation
on each element.
filter
A processing pattern that traverses a list and selects the elements that
satisfy some criterion.
object
Something a variable can refer to. An object has a type and a value.
equivalent
Having the same value.
identical
Being the same object (which implies equivalence).
reference
The association between a variable and its value.
aliasing
A circumstance where two or more variables refer to the same object.
delimiter
A character or string used to indicate where a string should be split.

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Chapter 11: Dictionaries

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dictionary
A mapping from a set of keys to their corresponding values.
key-value pair
The representation of the mapping from a key to a value.
item
Another name for a key-value pair.
key
An object that appears in a dictionary as the first part of a key-value pair.
value
An object that appears in a dictionary as the second part of a key-value pair.
This is more specific than our previous use of the word “value.”
implementation
A way of performing a computation.
hashtable
The algorithm used to implement Python dictionaries.
hash function
A function used by a hashtable to compute the location for a key.
hashable
A type that has a hash function. Immutable types like integers, floats and
strings are hashable; mutable types like lists and dictionaries are not.
lookup
A dictionary operation that takes a key and finds the corresponding value.
reverse lookup
A dictionary operation that takes a value and finds one or more keys that
map to it.
singleton
A list (or other sequence) with a single element.
call graph
A diagram that shows every frame created during the execution of a
program, with an arrow from each caller to each callee.
histogram
A set of counters.
memo
A computed value stored to avoid unnecessary future computation.
global variable
A variable defined outside a function. Global variables can be accessed from
any function.
flag
A boolean variable used to indicate whether a condition is true.
declaration
A statement like global that tells the interpreter something about a variable.

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Chapter 12: Tuples

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tuple
An immutable sequence of elements.
tuple assignment
An assignment with a sequence on the right side and a tuple of variables on
the left. The right side is evaluated and then its elements are assigned to
the variables on the left.
gather
The operation of assembling a variable-length argument tuple.
scatter
The operation of treating a sequence as a list of arguments.
DSU
Abbreviation of “decorate-sort-undecorate,” a pattern that involves building
a list of tuples, sorting, and extracting part of the result.
data structure
A collection of related values, often organized in lists, dictionaries, tuples,
etc.
shape (of a data structure)
A summary of the type, size and composition of a data structure.

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Chapter 13: Case study - data structure selection

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deterministic
Pertaining to a program that does the same thing each time it runs, given
the same inputs.
pseudorandom
Pertaining to a sequence of numbers that appear to be random, but are
generated by a deterministic program.
default value
The value given to an optional parameter if no argument is provided.
override
To replace a default value with an argument.
benchmarking
The process of choosing between data structures by implementing
alternatives and testing them on a sample of the possible inputs.

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Chapter 14: Files

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persistent
Pertaining to a program that runs indefinitely and keeps at least some of its
data in permanent storage.
format operator
An operator, %, that takes a format string and a tuple and generates a string
that includes the elements of the tuple formatted as specified by the format
string.
format string
A string, used with the format operator, that contains format sequences.
format sequence
A sequence of characters in a format string, like %d, that specifies how a
value should be formatted.
text file
A sequence of characters stored in permanent storage like a hard drive.
directory
A named collection of files, also called a folder.
path
A string that identifies a file.
relative path
A path that starts from the current directory.
absolute path
A path that starts from the topmost directory in the file system.
catch
To prevent an exception from terminating a program using the try and
except statements.
database
A file whose contents are organized like a dictionary with keys that
correspond to values
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Chapter 15: Classes and objects

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class
A user-defined type. A class definition creates a new class object.
class object
An object that contains information about a user-defined type. The class
object can be used to create instances of the type.
instance
An object that belongs to a class.
attribute
One of the named values associated with an object.
embedded (object)
An object that is stored as an attribute of another object.
shallow copy
To copy the contents of an object, including any references to embedded
objects; implemented by the copy function in the copy module.
deep copy
To copy the contents of an object as well as any embedded objects, and any
objects embedded in them, and so on; implemented by the deepcopy
function in the copy module.
object diagram
A diagram that shows objects, their attributes, and the values of the
attributes.
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Chapter 16: Classes and functions

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prototype and patch
A development plan that involves writing a rough draft of a program,
testing, and correcting errors as they are found.
planned development
A development plan that involves high-level insight into the problem and
more planning than incremental development or prototype development.
pure function
A function that does not modify any of the objects it receives as arguments.
Most pure functions are fruitful.
modifier
A function that changes one or more of the objects it receives as
arguments. Most modifiers are fruitless.
functional programming style
A style of program design in which the majority of functions are pure.
invariant
A condition that should always be true during the execution of a program.

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Chapter 17: Classes and methods

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object-oriented language
A language that provides features, such as user-defined classes and method
syntax, that facilitate object-oriented programming.
object-oriented programming
A style of programming in which data and the operations that manipulate it
are organized into classes and methods.
method
A function that is defined inside a class definition and is invoked on
instances of that class.
subject
The object a method is invoked on.
operator overloading
Changing the behavior of an operator like + so it works with a user-defined
type.
type-based dispatch
A programming pattern that checks the type of an operand and invokes
different functions for different types.
polymorphic
Pertaining to a function that can work with more than one type.
information hiding
The principle that the interface provided by an object should not depend on
its implementation, in particular the representation of its attributes.

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Chapter 18: Inheritance

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encode
To represent one set of values using another set of values by constructing a
mapping between them.
class attribute
An attribute associated with a class object. Class attributes are defined
inside a class definition but outside any method.
instance attribute
An attribute associated with an instance of a class.
veneer
A method or function that provides a different interface to another function
without doing much computation.
inheritance
The ability to define a new class that is a modified version of a previously
defined class.
parent class
The class from which a child class inherits.
child class
A new class created by inheriting from an existing class; also called a
“subclass.”
IS-A relationship
The relationship between a child class and its parent class.
HAS-A relationship
The relationship between two classes where instances of one class contain
references to instances of the other.
class diagram
A diagram that shows the classes in a program and the relationships
between them.
multiplicity
A notation in a class diagram that shows, for a HAS-A relationship, how
many references there are to instances of another class.

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Chapter 19: Case study - Tkinter

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GUI
A graphical user interface.
widget
One of the elements that makes up a GUI, including buttons, menus, text
entry fields, etc.
option
A value that controls the appearance or function of a widget.
keyword argument
An argument that indicates the parameter name as part of the function call.
callback
A function associated with a widget that is called when the user performs
an action.
bound method
A method associated with a particular instance.
event-driven programming
A style of programming in which the flow of execution is determined by
user actions.
event
A user action, like a mouse click or key press, that causes a GUI to respond.
event loop
An infinite loop that waits for user actions and responds.
item
A graphical element on a Canvas widget.
bounding box
A rectangle that encloses a set of items, usually specified by two opposing
corners.
pack
To arrange and display the elements of a GUI.
geometry manager
A system for packing widgets.
binding
An association between a widget, an event, and an event handler. The event
handler is called when the event occurs in the widget.