Glossary of computer programming terms

• abstraction - See abstraction.
• anonymous function - A function definition not bound to an identifier. See anonymous function.
• closure - See closure.
• comment - Text that does not affect the program, but helps human readability.
• debounce - See debounce.
• encapsulation - See encapsulation.
• expression - A code fragment that produces a value.
• immutability - See immutability.
• inheritance - See inheritance.
• mapreduce- See mapreduce.
• memoization - See memoization.
• mutability - See mutability.
• polymorphism - See polymorphism.
• program - A collection of statements that performs some functionality or task.
• programming paradigm - See programming paradigm.
• recursion - A method of solving a problem where the solution depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem. See recursion.
• statement - The smallest piece of code that "says something", separated by semicolons.
• syntax - Rules and symbols used by a language.
• type coercion - The process of changing an expression from one data type to another. See type coercion.
• type system - A set of rules that assigns a property called a type to the various constructs of a program. See type system.