Evaluation

To evaluate means to compute the value of an expression.

Related concepts:  ValueExpression

Closest Wikipedia entry:  Evaluation strategy — In a programming language, an evaluation strategy is a set of rules for evaluating expressions. The term is often used to refer to the more specific notion of a parameter-passing strategy that defines whether to evaluate the parameters of a function call, and if so in what order (the evaluation order) and the kind of value that is passed to the function for each parameter (the binding strategy). The notion of reduction strategy is distinct, although some authors conflate the two terms and the definition of each term is not widely agreed upon.To illustrate, a function application may evaluate the argument before evaluating the function's body and pass the address, giving the function the ability to look up the argument's current value and modify it via assignment.Evaluation strategy is specified by the programming language definition, and is not a function of any specific implementation.

Misconceptions about Evaluation

9 documented Misconceptions

ComparisonWithBoolLiteral — Python

To test whether an expression is True or False, one must compare it to True or to False

EvaluationResultsArePrinted — Java

Evaluating an expression means outputting its result

ExpressionsDynamicallyTyped — Java

One has to evaluate an expression to determine its type

MapToBooleanWithIf — Python

To map a boolean expression to a bool, an if statement is necessary

NoShortCircuit — Java

&& and || always evaluate both operands

NoShortCircuit — Python

and/or always evaluate both operands

ReturnCall — Python

Return statements need () around the return value

RightToLeftChaining — Python

Chained accesses are invoked from right to left

ToStringPrints — Java

Invoking toString() prints something