Computer Science for STEM The PreTeXt Interactive Edition

Glossary Glossary

aliases.

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Multiple variables that contain references to the same object.

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clone.

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To create a new object that has the same value as an existing object. Copying a reference to an object creates an alias but doesn’t clone the object.

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delimiter.

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A character or string used to indicate where a string should be split.

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element.

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One of the values in a list (or other sequence). The bracket operator selects elements of a list.

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index.

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An integer variable or value that indicates an element of a list.

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list.

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A collection of objects, where each object is identified by an index. Like other types str, int, float, etc. there is also a list type-converter function that tries to turn its argument into a list.

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list traversal.

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The sequential accessing of each element in a list.

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modifier.

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A function which changes its arguments inside the function body. Only mutable types can be changed by modifiers.

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mutable data type.

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A data type in which the elements can be modified. All mutable types are compound types. Lists are mutable data types; strings are not.

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nested list.

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A list that is an element of another list.

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object.

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A thing to which a variable can refer.

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pattern.

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A sequence of statements, or a style of coding something that has general applicability in a number of different situations. Part of becoming a mature Computer Scientist is to learn and establish the patterns and algorithms that form your toolkit. Patterns often correspond to your “mental chunking”.

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sequence.

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Any of the data types that consist of an ordered collection of elements, with each element identified by an index.

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side effect.

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A change in the state of a program made by calling a function that is not a result of reading the return value from the function. Side effects can only be produced by modifiers.

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tuple.

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A sequential collection of items, similar to a list. Any python object can be an element of a tuple. However, unlike a list, tuples are immutable.

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