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Software Engineering vocabulary · Programming Concepts

Call

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/kɔːl/verbCore term

In software engineering, call means: To make a function, method or API run from another part of the code. As a noun, 'a call' is one such request, for example 'an API call'.

In Turkish: çağırmak

How it is used

Used constantly: 'call a function', 'call the API', 'this method is called twice'. The noun appears in 'API call', 'network call' and 'function call'. A 'callback' is a function passed to be called later.

Example sentences

  1. We call the pricing service every time the page loads, which is too often.

  2. This function is called from three different places.

  3. Can we cache the result instead of making a network call each time?

Common collocations

  • call a function
  • call an API
  • API call
  • make a call
  • function call
  • functionA named block of code that does one job. It can take input values, and it often returns a result to the code that called it.
  • APIShort for application programming interface: a set of rules that lets one program ask another program for data or actions in a fixed, documented way.
  • parameterA named input that a function or method accepts, listed in its definition. The actual value you pass in when you call it is called the argument.
  • endpointA specific URL of an API that accepts requests for one kind of action, such as GET /users to list users or POST /orders to create an order.

More terms: Programming Concepts

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