26 Programming Concepts from A to Z
Tags: programming, beginners, webdev
Published: 2021-11-18 00:16:12

---
title: 26 Programming Concepts from A to Z
published: true
description: 26 Programming Concepts from A to Z
tags: programming, beginners, webdev
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---
I wrote this blog post to challenge myself to find a programming concept for each letter of the alphabet. It was surprisingly easy 😀.

Here they are:

**A**rray - An array is like a group of variables that have the same name and type. Use the name and an integer index to access one of the variables. An array is very useful, especially when paired with a `for` loop.

**B**inary - Computers speak *binary*, or 0s and 1s, because of hardware. Computer [registers](https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/register) have gates that store either `0` or `1`. This is programming at the lowest level, and all programming languages build on this.

**C**ontinue - The `continue` statement alters the flow of execution in a loop. It skips any remaining statements in the loop and immediately goes back to the top.

**D**ata - Programs process data. Data may come from the user, a file, variables, or other input source. And there are various types of data.

**E**quality - The equality operation checks if two operands are equal. The result is a Boolean true/false value. There are different ways to test for equality. One common equality operator is `==`.

**F**or - The `for` loop is a repetition structure that repeats statements. `for` loops are useful when working with numeric sequences.

**G**oto - In BASIC programming, the `Goto` statement jumps to another line in the program and continues execution from there. Using `Goto` statements is considered a [bad practice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goto#Criticism), because it makes code difficult to understand, modify, and debug.

**H**ashMap - In Java, the [HashMap](https://www.w3schools.com/java/java_hashmap.asp) class is a data structure that stores key-value pairs. Each key is unique. There are convenient methods to view and manipulate `HashMap` objects.

**I**nteger - The integer data type represents numbers that do not have decimal places. Integer values may be positive, negative, or `0`.

**J**oin - In relational databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL, the `JOIN` command joins records from two tables based on related columns.

**K**ill - Use the `bash` `kill` command to terminate a process. This is useful when you need to terminate a program that will not stop on its own.

**L**ist - In Python, the [list](https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html?highlight=list) data structure is the built-in version of an array. It has similar behaviors, with its own set of convenient methods.

**M**odulus - The modulus operation calculates the remainder when dividing two numbers. In many languages, the modulus operator is `%`. For example, the result of `5 % 2` is `1`.

**N**ew - In Java, use the [new](https://www.w3schools.com/java/ref_keyword_new.asp) keyword to create an object. In C++, `new` dynamically allocates memory in general.

**O**perators - Operators operate on data to create new data. Some common arithmetic operators are *multiply* `*`, *divide* `/`, *add* `+`, and *subtract* `-`. There are operators for other data types and operations.

**P**rint - The Python `print()` statement prints a string to `stdout`, for example `print('Hello, world!')`.

**Q**ueue - A [queue](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queue_(abstract_data_type)) is a data structure that stores elements sequentially. Queues are *first in, first out* (FIFO). In other words, the first element added to the queue is the first element that is processed.

**R**eturn - The `return` statement is a way to return from a procedure or function. A return statement can return a value.

**S**tack - The [stack](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_(abstract_data_type)) is a cousin of the queue. But a stack stores elements in *last in, first out* (LIFO) order. The last element added is the first one that is processed.

**T**esting - Testing is a phase of program development where you verify and validate the correctness of your program.

**U**nicode - Unicode is an international coding standard that assigns a numeric value to each character or symbol. Programs can leverage this encoding scheme. The Java programming language supports Unicode.

**V**ector - In Java, the `Vector` class is like the array structure, except that it can increase in size dynamically.

**W**hile - The `while` loop is a programming construct that repeats its statements while a condition is true. It has more flexibility than a `for` loop, since its condition can implement a variety of scenarios.

**X**OR - Exclusive-OR, or XOR, is a logical operator that returns true if exactly one of its operands is true. Otherwise, it returns false. In Java, the XOR operator is `^`. For example, `true ^ true` returns `false` and `false ^ true` returns `true`.

**Y**ield - The `yield` statement in Python lets you iterate over a sequence of values by returning a generator from a function. This avoids having to store the entire sequence in memory and returning it all at once.

**Z**eros - The Python `numpy` function `zeros` returns a new array that is filled with zeros.

That is my *A to Z* list. How about yours? 👍🏼

Thanks for reading. 😁

Follow me on Twitter [`@realEdwinTorres`](https://twitter.com/realEdwinTorres) for more programming tips.