References

Last updated on 2022-06-15 | Edit this page

Glossary

The definitions below are from the Carpentries Glosario (CC-BY-4.0)

argument: The term should not be confused with, and is not a synonym for, parameter. An argument is one of possibly several expressions that are passed to a function. It is the actual value that is passed. Parameters and arguments are distinct, but related concepts. Parameters are variables and arguments are the values assigned to those variables.
attribute: A name-value pair associated with an object, used to store metadata about the object such as an array’s dimensions.
child class: In object-oriented programming, a class derived from another class (called the parent class).
class: In object-oriented programming, a structure that combines data and operations (called methods). The program then uses a constructor to create an object with those properties and methods. Programmers generally put generic or reusable behavior in parent classes, and more detailed or specific behavior in child classes.
command-line interface: A user interface that relies solely on text for commands and output, typically running in a shell.
constructor: A function that creates an object of a particular class. In the S3 object system, constructors are a convention rather than a requirement.
data frame: A two-dimensional data structure for storing tabular data in memory. Rows represent records and columns represent variables.
field: A component of a record containing a single value. Every record in a tibble or database table has the same fields.
function: A code block which gathers a sequence of operations into a whole, preserving it for ongoing use by defining a set of tasks that takes zero or more required and optional arguments as inputs and returns expected outputs (return values), if any. Functions enable repeating these defined tasks with one command, known as a function call.
generic function: A collection of functions with similar purpose, each operating on a different class of data.
keyword arguments: Extra (often optional) arguments given to a function as key/value pairs.
method: An implementation of a generic function that handles objects of a specific class.
object-oriented programming: A style of programming in which functions and data are bound together in objects that only interact with each other through well-defined interfaces.
object: In object-oriented programming, a structure that contains the data for a specific instance of a class. The operations the object is capable of are defined by the class’s methods.
observation: A value or property of a specific member of a population.
operating system: A program that provides a standard interface to whatever hardware it is running on. Theoretically, any program that only interacts with the operating system should run on any computer that operating system runs on.
parameter: A variable specified in a function definition whose value is passed to the function when the function is called. Parameters and arguments are distinct, but related concepts. Parameters are variables and arguments are the values assigned to those variables.
parent class: In object-oriented programming, the class from which a sub class (called the child class) is derived.
Python Software Foundation: A non-profit organization that oversees and promotes the development and use of Python.
Python: A popular interpreted open-source programming language that relies on indentation to define control structure.
record: A group of related values that are stored together. A record may be represented as a tuple or as a row in a table; in the latter case, every record in the table has the same fields.
relational database: A database that organizes information into tables, each of which has a fixed set of named fields (shown as columns) and a variable number of records (shown as rows).
shell: A command-line interface that allows a user to interact with the operating system, such as Bash (for Unix and MacOS) or PowerShell (for Windows).
table: A set of records in a relational database or observations in a data frame. Tables are usually displayed as rows (each of which represents one record or observation and columns (each of which represents a field or variable.
tuple: A data type that has a fixed number of parts, such as the three color components of a red-green-blue color specification. In “Python”, tuples are immutable (their values cannot be reset.)
variable (data): Some attribute of a population that can be measured or observed.
variable (program): A name in a program that has some data associated with it. A variable’s value can be changed after definition.