Glossary

sequence: An ordered set; that is, a set of values where each value is identified by an integer index.

item: One of the values in a sequence.

index: An integer value used to select an item in a sequence, such as a character in a string.

slice: A part of a string specified by a range of indices.

empty string: A string with no characters and length 0, represented by two quotation marks.

immutable: The property of a sequence whose items cannot be assigned.

traverse: To iterate through the items in a sequence, performing a similar operation on each.

search: A pattern of traversal that stops when it finds what it is looking for.

counter: A variable used to count something, usually initialised to zero and then incremented.

method: A function that is associated with an object and called using dot notation.

invocation: A statement that calls a method.

list: A sequence of values.

element: One of the values in a list (or other sequence), also called items.

index: An integer value that indicates an element in a list.

nested list: A list that is an element of another list.

list traversal: The sequential accessing of each element in a list.

mapping: A relationship in which each element of one set corresponds to an element of another set. For example, a list is a mapping from indices to elements.

accumulator: A variable used in a loop to add up or accumulate a result.

augmented assignment: A statement that updates the value of a variable using an operator like +=.

reduce: A processing pattern that traverses a sequence and accumulates the elements into a single result.

map: A processing pattern that traverses a sequence and performs an operation on each element.

filter: A processing pattern that traverses a list and selects the elements that satisfy some criterion.

object: Something a variable can refer to. An object has a type and a value.

equivalent: Having the same value.

identical: Being the same object (which implies equivalence).

reference: The association between a variable and its value.

aliasing: A circumstance where two or more variables refer to the same object.

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

tuple: An immutable sequence of elements.

tuple assignment: An assignment with a sequence on the right side and a tuple of variables on the left. The right side is evaluated and then its elements are assigned to the variables on the left.

gather: The operation of assembling a variable-length argument tuple.

scatter: The operation of treating a sequence as a list of arguments.

DSU: Abbreviation of "decorate-sort-undecorate", a pattern that involves building a list of tuples, sorting, and extracting part of the result.

data structure: A collection of related values, often organised in lists, dictionaries, tuples, etc.