Related Terms. A Rapid Application Development (RAD) system developed by Borland International, Inc. Delphi is similar to Visual Basic from Microsoft, but whereas Visual Basic is based on the BASIC programming language, Delphi is based on Pascal.
A parameter is a numerical value that states something about the entire population being studied. For example, we may want to know the mean wingspan of the American bald eagle. This is a parameter because it is describing all of the population. Parameters are difficult if not impossible to obtain exactly.
An example will help set the stage. We use the term actual parameters to refer to variables in the method call, in this case length and width. They are called ``actual'' because they determine the actual values that are sent to the method. You may have heard the term argument used, or just parameter (without specifying actual or formal).