What Is a Slot?

slot

A slot is a thin opening or groove in something. For example, you might put letters in a mail slot on the front door of your house or use a debit card in a bank machine to withdraw money. Alternatively, a slot might refer to one of the slots in a computer motherboard where expansion cards can be installed.

A specialized table slot that is used to hold data which repeats at some periodic time interval, such as a set of monthly evaporation coefficients for a reservoir (the same every year). Periodic slots can be configured to display either text or numeric column headings and can handle both scalar and linear timeseries. Periodic slots can be docked to a Slot Viewer, which is a floating icon in the workspace that allows you to view and edit the contents of all of the currently open slot tables.

The slot receiver in a football team lines up closer to the center of the field than other wide receivers, which makes them a target for linebackers and cornerbacks. Typically, they play on obvious passing downs and are expected to catch a lot of short receptions (8-15 yards) to help move the chains.

When a person plays a slot machine, they are randomly assigned a number that corresponds to a particular symbol on the virtual reel. When the machine receives a signal — anything from a button being pushed to the handle being pulled — it sets a new number and the reels stop on that symbol. Between signals, the random-number generator continues to operate, producing dozens of numbers each second.