Glossary

Value: One of the basic units of data, like a number or string, that a program manipulates.

Type: A category of values. The types we have seen so far are integers (type int), floating-point numbers (type float), and strings (type str).

Integer: A type that represents whole numbers.

Floating-point: A type that represents numbers with fractional parts.

String: A type that represents sequences of characters.

Variable: A name that refers to a value.

Statement: A section of code that represents a command or action. So far, the statements we have seen are assignments and print statements.

Assignment: A statement that assigns a value to a variable.

State diagram: A graphical representation of a set of variables and the values they refer to.

Keyword: A reserved word that is used by the compiler to parse a program; you cannot use keywords like if, def, and while as variable names.

Operator: A special symbol that represents a simple computation like addition, multiplication, or string concatenation.

Operand: One of the values on which an operator operates.

Floor division: The operation that divides two numbers and chops off the fraction part.

Expression: A combination of variables, operators, and values that represents a single result value.

Evaluate: To simplify an expression by performing the operations in order to yield a single value.

Rules of precedence: The set of rules governing the order in which expressions involving multiple operators and operands are evaluated.

Concatenate: To join two operands end-to-end.

multiple assignment: Making more than one assignment to the same variable during the execution of a program.

update: An assignment where the new value of the variable depends on the old.

initialization: An assignment that gives an initial value to a variable that will be updated.

increment: An update that increases the value of a variable (often by one).

decrement: An update that decreases the value of a variable.