AP CSA Unit 2 Vocabulary

a software development principle that stands for "Don't Repeat Yourself" which aims to reduce repetition in code

a keyword used to set the visibility of classes, variables, constructors, and methods

an object-oriented programming concept where the instance variables of a class are hidden from other classes and can be accessed only through the methods of the class

a variable defined in a class that represents an attribute of an object

to improve the readability, reusability, or structure of program code without altering its functionality

the first line of the constructor which includes the public keyword, the constructor name, and any parameters

a predefined value that is used by a program when the user does not provide a value

a constructor with no parameters

the value to assign to the formal parameter

copying the value of the actual parameter to the constructor's formal parameter

the value to be passed to a constructor or method

a variable declared and accessible within a specific block of code

defining two or more constructors or methods with the same name but different signatures

a constructor that has a specific number of arguments to be passed to assign values to an object's instance variables

the attributes of an object that are represented by its instance variables

where a variable can be used

using the assignment operator to initialize or change the value stored in a variable

giving a starting value to a variable using the assignment operator

a source code representation of a value, such as a number or text

a basic data type that Java predefines

a data type that contains a pointer to the memory location of an object

gives the value that is currently assigned to an instance variable

a library of prewritten classes

a collection of methods or reusable components of code

a copy of the value is given to where the method is called

shortcut syntax to perform an operation on both operands and assign the result into the variable on the left

a combination of expressions

when two strings are joined together

a combination of data and operators that evaluates to a single value

the data that is operated on

to cut off data from the end

a logical statement that gives either a true or false value

changes the value assigned to an instance variable

an operator used to compare values or expressions

starts with a \ to indicate how to display a string

to define a method in a subclass with the same method signature as a method inherited from a superclass