Unit 15: Vocabulary

Please study the 16 vocabulary terms below. Then press the Mark Complete button to continue.
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& (ampersand)
a key which is used in many languages 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)
the character which often means "multiply" in a math equation or "match all" in a RegEx 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)
the sign 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)
a key used for separating files and folders, normally in a Windows file system
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The user files were located in 'C:\documents and settings\gregbrady\my documents'.
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brackets
the punctuation marks '{' and '}' used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text
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In programming languages, brackets are often used to denote blocks of executable code.
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case
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)
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)
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)
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)
the operator sign 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
the punctuation marks '(' and ')'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)
the sign 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)
the operator sign normally indicating the operation of addition
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The elementary school teacher told the students that 2 + 2 = 4.
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square brackets
the punctuation marks '[' and ']' 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)
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)
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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