Glossary - Java Software Solutions: Foundations of Program Design - page 643

base case— The situation that terminates recur-
sive processing, allowing the active recursive
methods to begin returning to their point of
invocation.
base class— See superclass.
behavior— The functional characteristics of an
object, defined by its methods. See also identity,
state.
binary— The base-2 number system. Modern
computer systems store information as strings
of binary digits (bits).
binary operator— An operator that uses two
operands.
binary search— A searching algorithm that
requires that the list be sorted. It repetitively
compares the “middle” element of the list to
the target value, narrowing the scope of the
search each time. See also linear search.
binary string— A series of binary digits (bits).
binary tree— A tree data structure in which each
node can have no more than two child nodes.
binding— The process of associating an identi-
fier with the construct that it represents. For
example, the process of binding a method name
to the specific definition that it invokes.
bit— A binary digit, either 0 or 1.
bit shifting— The act of shifting the bits of a
data value to the left or right, losing bits on one
end and inserting bits on the other.
bits per second (bps)— A measurement rate for
data transfer devices.
bitwise operator— An operator that manipu-
lates individual bits of a value, either by calcu-
lation or by shifting.
black-box testing— Producing and evaluating
test cases based on the input and expected
output of a software component. The test cases
focus on covering the equivalence categories

and boundary values of the input. See also
white-box testing.
block— A group of programming statements
and declarations delimited by braces ( {} ).
boolean— A Java reserved word representing a
logical primitive data type that can only take
the values true or false .
boolean expression— An expression that evalu-
ates to a true or false result, primarily used
as conditions in selection and repetition
statements.
boolean operator— Any of the bitwise opera-
tors AND ( & ), OR ( | ), or XOR ( ^ ) when
applied to boolean operands. The results are
equivalent to their logical counterparts, except
that boolean operators are not short-circuited.
border— A graphical edge around a graphi-
cal user interface component to enhance its
appearance or to group components visually.
An empty border creates a buffer of space
around a component.
bounding rectangle— A rectangle that delin-
eates a region in which an oval or arc is defined.
boundary values— The input values corre-
sponding to the edges of equivalence categories.
Used in black-box testing.
bounds checking— The process of determin-
ing whether an array index is in bounds, given
the size of the array. Java performs automatic
bounds checking.
bps— See bits per second.
break— A Java reserved word used to interrupt
the flow of control by breaking out of the cur-
rent loop or switch statement.
browser— Software that retrieves HTML doc-
uments and other resources across a network
and formats them for viewing. A browser is
the primary vehicle for accessing the World
Wide Web.