Variable (computer science) in the context of First-class citizen

In computer programming, a string is traditionally a sequence of characters, either as a literal constant or as some kind of variable. The latter may allow its elements to be mutated and the length changed, or it may be fixed (after creation). A string is often implemented as an array data structure of bytes (or words) that stores a sequence of elements, typically characters, using some character encoding. More general, string may also denote a sequence (or list) of data other than just characters.

Depending on the programming language and precise data type used, a variable declared to be a string may either cause storage in memory to be statically allocated for a predetermined maximum length or employ dynamic allocation to allow it to hold a variable number of elements.

A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more database tables, where every column of a table represents a particular variable, and each row corresponds to a given record of the data set in question. The data set lists values for each of the variables, such as for example height and weight of an object, for each member of the data set. Data sets can also consist of a collection of documents or files.

In the open data discipline, a data set is a unit used to measure the amount of information released in a public open data repository. The European data.europa.eu portal aggregates more than a million data sets.

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the object – a software entity that encapsulates data and function(s). An OOP computer program consists of objects that interact with one another. A programming language that provides OOP features is classified as an OOP language but as the set of features that contribute to OOP is contended, classifying a language as OOP and the degree to which it supports or is OOP, are debatable. As paradigms are not mutually exclusive, a language can be multi-paradigm; can be categorized as more than only OOP.

Sometimes, objects represent real-world things and processes in digital form. For example, a graphics program may have objects such as circle, square, and menu. An online shopping system might have objects such as shopping cart, customer, and product. Niklaus Wirth said, "This paradigm [OOP] closely reflects the structure of systems in the real world and is therefore well suited to model complex systems with complex behavior".

In programming, a class is a syntactic entity structure used to create objects. The capabilities of a class differ between programming languages, but generally the shared aspects consist of state (variables) and behavior (methods) that are each either associated with a particular object or with all objects of that class.

Object state can differ between each instance of the class whereas the class state is shared by all of them. The object methods include access to the object state (via an implicit or explicit parameter that references the object) whereas class methods do not.

A programming language consists of a system of allowed sequences of symbols (constructs) together with rules that define how each construct is interpreted. For example, a language might allow expressions representing various types of data, expressions that provide structuring rules for data, expressions representing various operations on data, and constructs that provide sequencing rules for the order in which to perform operations.

A simple type system for a programming language is a set of rules that associates a data type (for example, integer, floating point, string) with each term (data-valued expression) in a computer program. In more ambitious type systems, a variety of constructs, such as variables, expressions, functions, and modules, may be assigned types.

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:

In computer programming, a runtime system or runtime environment is a sub-system that exists in the computer where a program is created, as well as in the computers where the program is intended to be run. The name comes from the compile time and runtime division from compiled languages, which similarly distinguishes the computer processes involved in the creation of a program (compilation) and its execution in the target machine (the runtime).

Most programming languages have some form of runtime system that provides an environment in which programs run. This environment may address a number of issues including the management of application memory, how the program accesses variables, mechanisms for passing parameters between procedures, interfacing with the operating system (OS), among others. The compiler makes assumptions depending on the specific runtime system to generate correct code. Typically the runtime system will have some responsibility for setting up and managing the stack and heap, and may include features such as garbage collection, threads or other dynamic features built into the language.

In computer programming, an enumerated type (also called enumeration, enum, or factor in the R programming language, a condition-name in the COBOL programming language, a status variable in the JOVIAL programming language, an ordinal in the PL/I 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. In other words, an enumerated type has values that are different from each other, and that can be compared and assigned, but are not generally specified by the programmer as having any particular concrete representation in the computer's memory; compilers and interpreters can represent them arbitrarily.
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Templates are a feature of the C++ programming language that allows functions and classes to operate with generic types. This allows a function or class declaration to reference via a generic variable another different class (built-in or newly declared data type) without creating a full declaration for each of these different classes.

In plain terms, a templated class or function would be the equivalent of (before "compiling") copying and pasting the templated block of code where it is used, and then replacing the template parameter with the actual one. For this reason, classes employing templated methods place the implementation in the headers (*.h files) as no symbol could be compiled without knowing the type beforehand.

In computer programming, a parameter, a.k.a. formal argument, is a variable that represents an argument, a.k.a. actual argument, a.k.a. actual parameter, to a function call. A function's signature defines its parameters. A call invocation involves evaluating each argument expression of a call and associating the result with the corresponding parameter.

In data hierarchy, a field (data field) is a variable in a record. A record, also known as a data structure, allows logically related data to be identified by a single name. Identifying related data as a single group is central to the construction of understandable computer programs. The individual fields in a record may be accessed by name, just like any variable in a computer program.

Each field in a record has two components. One component is the field's datatype declaration. The other component is the field's identifier.

In computer science and mathematical logic, a function type (or arrow type or exponential) is the type of a variable or parameter to which a function has or can be assigned, or an argument or result type of a higher-order function taking or returning a function.

A function type depends on the type of the parameters and the result type of the function (it, or more accurately the unapplied type constructor · → ·, is a higher-kinded type). In theoretical settings and programming languages where functions are defined in curried form, such as the simply typed lambda calculus, a function type depends on exactly two types, the domain A and the range B. Here a function type is often denoted A → B, following mathematical convention, or B, based on there existing exactly B (exponentially many) set-theoretic functions mappings A to B in the category of sets. The class of such maps or functions is called the exponential object. The act of currying makes the function type adjoint to the product type; this is explored in detail in the article on currying.