Unit 15: Vocabulary

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& (ampersand)
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a symbol which is normally used to mean "and"
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"In SQL queries it is best practice to spell out 'AND' and not just use the ampersand (&) as a shortcut."
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* (asterisk)
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the character which often means "multiply" in a math equation or "match all" in a regular expression wildcard
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"The programmer could not remember whether to use an asterisk (*) or a percent sign (%) as a wildcard in his SQL regular expression."
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@ (at sign)
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the symbol often used in email addresses to separate usernames from domain names
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"The at sign key is often in very different locations on many international keyboards."
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\ (back slash)
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a character used to separate files and folders in Windows, and as an escape character in certain programming tasks
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"The user files were located in 'C:\documents and settings\gregbrady\my documents'."
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{ } (brackets)
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punctuation marks often used as control structures, or to denote variable interpolation
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"Brackets are also called "curly braces" and are used to define the beginning and end of code blocks, such as in functions or loops."
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case
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in typography this is the distinction between capital (big) and minuscule (small) letters
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"In order to change case on a computer, the user typically presses the "Shift" key."
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/ (forward slash)
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a key used to separate folders and files, often used in Unix file systems
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"The user's php binary was located in /usr/local/php."
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> (greater than sign)
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the sign which means that the value on the right is less than the value on the left
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"5 > 3"
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< (less than sign)
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the sign which means that the value on the left is smaller than the value on the right
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"3 < 5"
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- (minus sign)
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the operator symbol often indicating the process of subtraction or difference
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"The program did not output the expected result because the programmer forgot a minus sign."
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( ) (parentheses)
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symbols used in pairs to group values or sets of values
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"Parentheses are often used to group values in an equation."
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% (percent sign)
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the symbol meant to show a common measurement based on a fraction of 100
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"The CEO reported that sales were up 75% over last quarter."
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+ (plus sign)
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the operator symbol, normally indicating addition
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"The elementary school teacher told the students that 2 + 2 = 4."
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[ ] (square brackets)
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symbols used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text
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"In programming languages, the use of square brackets are sometimes used to show the elements of an array."
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~ (tilde)
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this key normally means "approximately" in mathematics; in Unix systems this character is used to represent a home directory
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"The student learned that his home directory was 'home/~johndoe' and his web directory was 'http://www.university.co.uk/students/johndoe'."
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_ (underscore)
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a character often used in file names to join words without using a space; originally used on typewriters to make underlined text
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"The long file name "hippy_dippy_string_concatenation.pl" contained many underscores because spaces aren't advised in Unix file names."
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