Concept
Constant (computer programming)
Related concepts (15)
Object-oriented programming
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or properties), and the code is in the form of procedures (often known as methods). A common feature of objects is that procedures (or methods) are attached to them and can access and modify the object's data fields. In this brand of OOP, there is usually a special name such as or used to refer to the current object.
Comparison of programming paradigms
This article attempts to set out the various similarities and differences between the various programming paradigms as a summary in both graphical and tabular format with links to the separate discussions concerning these similarities and differences in extant Wikipedia articles. There are two main approaches to programming: Imperative programming – focuses on how to execute, defines control flow as statements that change a program state. Declarative programming – focuses on what to execute, defines program logic, but not detailed control flow.
Identifier (computer languages)
In computer programming languages, an identifier is a lexical token (also called a symbol, but not to be confused with the symbol primitive data type) that names the language's entities. Some of the kinds of entities an identifier might denote include variables, data types, labels, subroutines, and modules. Which character sequences constitute identifiers depends on the lexical grammar of the language.
Sigil (computer programming)
In computer programming, a sigil (ˈsɪdʒəl) is a symbol affixed to a variable name, showing the variable's datatype or scope, usually a prefix, as in is the sigil. Sigil, from the Latin sigillum, meaning a "little sign", means a sign or image supposedly having magical power. Sigils can be used to separate and demarcate namespaces that possess different properties or behaviors. The use of sigils was popularized by the BASIC programming language.
Naming convention (programming)
In computer programming, a naming convention is a set of rules for choosing the character sequence to be used for identifiers which denote variables, types, functions, and other entities in source code and documentation. Reasons for using a naming convention (as opposed to allowing programmers to choose any character sequence) include the following: To reduce the effort needed to read and understand source code; To enable code reviews to focus on issues more important than syntax and naming standards.
Enumerated type
In computer programming, an enumerated type (also called enumeration, enum, or factor in the R programming language, and a categorical variable in statistics) is a data type consisting of a set of named values called elements, members, enumeral, or enumerators of the type. The enumerator names are usually identifiers that behave as constants in the language. An enumerated type can be seen as a degenerate tagged union of unit type. A variable that has been declared as having an enumerated type can be assigned any of the enumerators as a value.
Self-modifying code
In computer science, self-modifying code (SMC or SMoC) is code that alters its own instructions while it is executing – usually to reduce the instruction path length and improve performance or simply to reduce otherwise repetitively similar code, thus simplifying maintenance. The term is usually only applied to code where the self-modification is intentional, not in situations where code accidentally modifies itself due to an error such as a buffer overflow.
Global variable
In computer programming, a global variable is a variable with global scope, meaning that it is visible (hence accessible) throughout the program, unless shadowed. The set of all global variables is known as the global environment or global state. In compiled languages, global variables are generally static variables, whose extent (lifetime) is the entire runtime of the program, though in interpreted languages (including command-line interpreters), global variables are generally dynamically allocated when declared, since they are not known ahead of time.
Optimizing compiler
In computing, an optimizing compiler is a compiler that tries to minimize or maximize some attributes of an executable computer program. Common requirements are to minimize a program's execution time, memory footprint, storage size, and power consumption (the last three being popular for portable computers). Compiler optimization is generally implemented using a sequence of optimizing transformations, algorithms which take a program and transform it to produce a semantically equivalent output program that uses fewer resources or executes faster.
Assignment (computer science)
In computer programming, an assignment statement sets and/or re-sets the value stored in the storage location(s) denoted by a variable name; in other words, it copies a value into the variable. In most imperative programming languages, the assignment statement (or expression) is a fundamental construct. Today, the most commonly used notation for this operation is x = expr (originally Superplan 1949–51, popularized by Fortran 1957 and C). The second most commonly used notation is x := expr (originally ALGOL 1958, popularised by Pascal).