12.10. Glossary
- aliases
- Multiple variables that contain references to the same object.
- clone
- 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.
- delimiter
- A character or string used to indicate where a string should be split.
- element
- One of the values in a list (or other sequence). The bracket operator
selects elements of a list.
- index
- An integer variable or value that indicates an element of a list.
- list
- 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.
- list traversal
- The sequential accessing of each element in a list.
- modifier
- A function which changes its arguments inside the function body. Only
mutable types can be changed by modifiers.
- mutable data type
- A data type in which the elements can be modified. All mutable types
are compound types. Lists are mutable data types; strings are not.
- nested list
- A list that is an element of another list.
- object
- A thing to which a variable can refer.
- pattern
- 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”.
- pure function
- A function which has no side effects. Pure functions only make changes
to the calling program through their return values.
- sequence
- Any of the data types that consist of an ordered collection of elements, with
each element identified by an index.
- side effect
- 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.
- tuple
- 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.
Next Section - 12.11. Exercises