Algorithm design, problem

solving and programming

P per 2

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 The use of algorithms
Consider what is meant by an algorithm. If you search for algorithm then you will nd
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answers such as a process, or a set of rules, that are followed. This does not mean they
are limited to computers. You can nd algorithms in all areas of life. You will have
followed many of these without even considering that they are algorithms. For example,
in mathematics you will have followed a series of steps to solve a problem.

Algorithms can take many forms, and use a variety of words or structures.

Computers follow algorithms. Programs are written as a series of instructions that the
computer then follows. Algorithms for software might be millions of lines long, and they
have to make use of speci c instructions to tell the processor what to do.

A computer can only run machine code, that is binary. If you enter a command into the
computer, this has to be converted into binary for the processor to execute (run) it.

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 Program development life cycle

When a person, or organisation, creates a new computer program they will use a

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structured, organised plan of how to create the program. This is called the program
development life cycle.

There are several varieties of life cycle, including cyclic, spiral, waterfall and rapid
development. These all include the stages analysis, design, coding and testing.

An lysis
This rst stage involves looking at the problem and the system that is needed. The
problem is explored, and the requirements of the program are identi ed. Decomposition
is used to split the problem into subproblems. Subproblems allow the developers to
identify the requirements for each component part, and then tackle these separately in
the next stage. Once you have decomposed the problem, each of the subproblems can be
implemented as a subprogram.

Abstraction keeps the key elements required for the solution to the problem and discards
any unnecessary details and information that is not required. For example, a map only
shows what is required for traveling from one place to another. Di erent methods of
transport will require di erent types of map.

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 Design
Once the requirements have been identi ed, the program designers can begin planning
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how the program will work in the design phase. This can include an overview of the
program using a structure diagram, and the designing of algorithms using owcharts and
pseudocode.

Coding
Once you have decomposed your problem into subproblems, and you have designed the
algorithms using owcharts and/or pseudocode then you can start writing the program in
your chosen programming language. This is often referred to as coding.

This will also include some iterative testing. This is testing that is carried out while the
program is being developed, for example, if you write the program code for one of the
subproblems, then you will test it with a range of di erent data to make sure it is fully
working before moving onto the next step.

Testing
When you have nished your program, you need to carry out testing to make sure it:

• fully works

• does not crash

• meets all requirements

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 Structure diagram
A structure diagram is developed by decomposing a program into its subprograms. The

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diagram has the name of the program at the top, and below this its subprograms. Each
subprogram can be split down further as well if required.

Ex mple 1
A calculator needs to allow the user to enter numbers and the symbol, calculate the result
and output this.

The name of the program is at the top. The boxes below are ready for subprograms

One way of splitting up a small program is to think of inputs, processes and outputs. A
calculator

has an input, processes and output, so these can be added to the diagram

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 The subprograms can then be split further. The calculator needs two numbers and a
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symbol to be entered (e.g. 2 + 3). Add these boxes below input

The process. is dependent on the symbol entered. In this calculator, there is +, − , * and /.
Each of these could be given a separate box

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Or the variable names from the input can be used

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Both of these are valid. There are lots of ways you can decompose a problem, and
everyone could do it slightly di erently but the solution is still valid.

Finally, the output needs identifying

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 This program was fairly small, so it has been split into very precise instructions that can
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then be programmed. The next example is a larger problem.

A computerised version of chess is being developed. Two players can enter their names
and then a new board will be displayed. The players take it in turns to select pieces to
move and the positions to move them to. The program will check that the moves are valid
and then move the pieces. It will remove any pieces that have been taken in each move,
and check if anyone has reached checkmate.

Ex mple 2
The name of the program is at the top

The program could be decomposed into inputs, processes and outputs, but this is a large
program so it can be split down by di erent functions instead. The rst part is that there
are two players who need entering, this is given the name ‘New players’. Then the game is
set up (‘New game’). The players can then move their pieces (‘Make move’). The program
will check if someone has checkmate (‘Check won’)

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These can then be split further. They are each given their own sub-diagram here so that

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they are easier to view

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 Checkpoint
1. Describe the process of decomposition.

2. A program asks the user to enter two numbers. The program then adds the numbers
together and outputs the total. Draw a structure diagram for the program.
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3. A satellite navigation system needs to ask the user to input their destination. It then
nds the route to the destination and outputs the instructions to the user. Draw a
structure diagram for the system.

4. A login system asks the user to enter their username and password. It checks these are
valid and either outputs that they are correct, or incorrect and prompts to re-enter.
Draw a structure diagram for the system.

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 Flowcharts
A owchart shows diagrammatically the steps required to complete a task and the order
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that they are to be performed. These steps, together with the order, are called an
algorithm. Flowcharts are an e ective way to communicate how the algorithm that makes
up a system or sub-system works.

St rt/stop
Description Example

A owchart begins with a Start box, with

one arrow from it.

A owchart ends with a Stop box, with one

arrow going into it.

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 Flowcharts
Input
Description Example

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A single input of a value with an identi er
for that value.

One arrow should go into the box, and one

arrow should come out.

Output
Description Example

An output of text in speech marks, and/or

the identi er of a value

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 Process
Description Example
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An action that is being performed, usually

a mathematical calculation.

One arrow goes into the box, and one

arrow comes out of the box.

Decision
Description Example

A question with two outcomes, yes or no

(or true or false). The question is a
comparison from:

= equal to
> greater than < less than
>= greater than <= less than.

You can have more than one condition by

including AND or OR.

A question with two outcomes, yes or no

(or true or false). The question is a
comparison from:

= equal to
> greater than < less than
>= greater than <= less than.

You can have more than one condition by

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 Ex mple 1
A owchart for a calculator.

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 Ex mple 2
A owchart for a password validation program.
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 Ex mple 3
Tickets are sold for a concert at $20 each, if 10 tickets are bought then the discount is

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10%, if 20 tickets are bought the discount is 20%. No more than 25 tickets can be bought
in a single transaction.

This is owchart showing an algorithm to calculate the cost of buying a given number of
tickets:

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 Checkpoint
1. Write the name of each owchart symbol in the shape.
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2. Draw the owchart symbol for each statement:

• Start

• INPUT x

• INPUT y d IS x > y?

• x = x +y

• Stop

3. Draw a owchart to take three numbers as input, nd and output the largest number.

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 Pseudocode
Pseudocode refers to any code that is not written on a computer to run. There is no one
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set pseudocode, because if there was then this would be code with a speci c language.
Instead it’s a term for any readable code-like statements that all programmers will
understand. This means that it uses keywords, and constructs such as IF statements,
WHILE loops, etc. These constructs occur in almost all languages, so any programmer
would be expected to read them and translate them into the actual programming
language they are using.

Example pseudocode:

INPUT Number1
IF Number1 < 10 THEN
OUTPUT "too small"
ELSE
OUTPUT "valid"
ENDIF

This uses the keywords INPUT, IF and OUTPUT. These can then be translated into
whatever language the programmer is using.

There are many di erent valid pseudocode formats. Some will always use capitals for the
commands, e.g. INPUT, IF, FOR. Some will use ← instead of an = for assignment. If you
write your pseudocode in almost perfect ‘code’, i.e. you actually write Python code,
because it is not to be run and you can have all sorts of syntax errors it is still
pseudocode. What is important is that the program is split into steps that can be easily
converted into a real program.

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 Testing
You will need to identify appropriate test data to use to test the program. There are four

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types of test data:

• Normal – data that the program should accept.

• Abnormal– data that the program should not accept.

• Extreme– data that is at the edge of what is allowed.

• Boundary– data that is on the edge of being accepted and being rejected.

Example 1

A program allows the user to enter their age as a whole number between 10 and 100 years.

Test data type Example data

Any number between 10 and 100 inclusive,

Normal
e.g. 10, 20, 50, 100, etc.

Any data that is not a number between 10

Abnormal
and 100, e.g. 9, −1, 101, 200, “age”, “30”, 12.2.

The largest number accepted – 100. The

Extreme
smallest number accepted – 10.

Either side of the largest bound – 100 and

Boundary 101. Either side of the smallest bound – 9
and 10.

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 Example 2
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A user needs to enter a password at least 8 characters long.

Test data type Example data

Any set of 8 or more characters, but they

Normal must be text (have speech marks), e.g.
"abcdefgh" "12fghj567812".

Any set of characters with 7 or less

Abnormal
characters, e.g. "1234567", "seven".

Any with 8 characters only, e.g. "12345678",

Extreme
"ajrkdhJK".

Either side of the 8 character bound, 7

Boundary characters or 8 characters, e.g. "1234567",
"12345678", "abcdefg", "iJHFD7hJ",

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 Checkpoint
1. Identify three di erent types of test data.

2. Why can you have the same test data as normal and extreme types of test data?

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3. What is the di erence between extreme and boundary test data?

4. A program asks the user to input a number between 1 and 10 (inclusive).

Identify test data for each of the test data types in the table:

Test data type Example data

Normal

Abnormal

Extreme

Boundary

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 Programming concepts
V ri bles nd const nts
What are variables and constants?

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When you are writing a program, you will need to store data; whether this is data that has
been input, the result of calculations or any for any other reason. You can store data in
variables and constants.

A computer has memory, e.g. RAM. This is made of lots of spaces where you can put data.
Imagine this table is memory. Each of the boxes can store a piece of data.

In memory location 0 is the data 10. In memory location 1 is the data red.

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 Each variable and constant is one of these spaces in memory that is given an identi er (it
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has a name). In this table the memory numbers have been replaced with their identi ers.
The memory space with the name number1 is storing the piece of data 10.

Variables and constants have one di erence. In a variable, you can change the data while
the program is running. For example, putting the number 30 into memory location
number1, the memory would then look like this:

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A constant cannot have its value changed while the program is running. When you

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declare a constant you put a value into it and this cannot be changed.

Using variables

Putting data into a variable is done using an assignment statement. The left hand side of
the equals sign is the identi er. The right hand side of the equals sign is the value

Number ← 10
Colour ← "red"
Price ← 22.2

To get data out of a variable you just use its identi er

Number ← 10
Colour ← "red"
OUTPUT(Number)
OUTPUT("The colour is ", Colour)
Price ← Number * 2

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 Using constants
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Before you use a constant in your program you need to give it a value. This is an
assignment statement the same as a variable. (No examples are given for Python as it
does not have in-built constants.)

CONSTANT Colour ← "yellow"

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 D t types
Data in programs can be of di erent types. For example, it could be numeric or text. You

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will need to tell your program what type of data you want it to store. Some programming
languages need you to declare what type of data your variable will store when you rst
use it.

Data type Description Example data

Text – characters numbers

"hello"
and symbols.

STRING "123"
The data will always need to
be inside speech marks,
"help!"
either ' ' or " ".

INTEGER Whole numbers. 23

-300

1.2

REAL Decimal numbers. 23.0

-20.49

TRUE
BOOLEAN Either true or false.
FALSE

One character or number of

h’
symbol.

CHAR ‘9’
The data will always need to
be inside speech marks,
‘?’
either '' or "".

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 Storing di erent data types
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Storing a string in a variable:

Colour ← "red"

Storing an integer in a constant:

CONSTANT Value ← 10

Storing a real number in a variable:

Price ← 22.4

Storing a Boolean in a variable:

Flag ← TRUE

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 Converting between d t types
You might need to turn one data type into another data type. This is not required as part

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of the speci cation, but when you are programming in your chosen language you might
have to do it for your program to work. This is called casting. You can do this by using the
name of the data type you want the data to become.

Example 1

Convert a string to an integer:

Number ← int("123")

Example 2

Convert a number to a string:

Value ← string(22.4)

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 Checkpoint
1. Tick one or more boxes in each row to identify whether each statement refers to
variables and/or constants.

Statement Variable Constant

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You cannot change the value when the program is running.

It has an identi er.

It is a memory location.

You can change its value when the program is running.

It stores a piece of data.

2. Write a pseudocode statement to assign the word "house" to a variable named

MyWord.

3. Write a pseudocode statement to declare a constant named MultiplyValue with the

value 10.

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 Output
A program at some point will probably need to give information to the user. It does this

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using output. When outputting strings (characters, letters, etc.).

Example 1

Output the words, Hello World:

OUTPUT("Hello world")

Example 2

Output the number 20:

OUTPUT(20)

If you want to output more than one piece of data then you can join them using a
concatenation symbol. Concatenation means join together, so it joins multiple pieces of
data together. This could be a comma (,), an ampersand (&) or a plus (+) depending on
your language. All are acceptable in pseudocode.

Example 1

Output the word Hello, then the contents of variable name:

OUTPUT("Hello ", Name)

Example 2

Output the cost of an item stored in the variable cost:

OUTPUT("The cost is " , Cost)

Example 3

Output the number of balloons stored in the variable balloon:

OUTPUT("There are " , Balloon , " balloons")

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 Input
A program might need the user to enter (input) some data. To do this, the command
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word INPUT is used. This cannot appear on its own, otherwise the data entered will
disappear into space. So you need to do something with it, for example, store it in a
variable.

Example 1

Input a number and store it in a variable:

INPUT Number

Example 2

Tell the user to enter a word and store it in a variable:

OUTPUT("Enter a word")
INPUT Word

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 Arithmetic oper tors
Operator Description Example

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10+2 gives12
+ Adds two values together.
11.3 + 9 gives 20.3

10 - 2 gives 8
Subtracts the second value
-
from the rst.
11.3 - 9 gives 2.3

Multiplies two values

10*2 gives 20
together.
*
11.3 * 9 gives 101.7

10 / 2 gives 5
Divides the rst number by
/
the second.
11.3 / 9 gives 1.256

Gives the whole number

DIV(10, 2) gives 5
after the rst number is
DIV
divided by the second, i.e. it
DIV(11, 9) gives 1
ignores any decimals.

Gives the remainder after

the rst number is divided MOD(10, 2) gives 0 MOD(11,
MOD
by the second, i.e. how 9) gives 2
many are left.

2^3=8
^ Power of.
3^2=9

MOD has one special use in programming. It can be used to work out if a number is odd
or even. If you perform MOD 2 to a number and it returns 0 then it is even, if it returns 1
then it is odd.

Example: MOD(10, 2) = 0 therefore 10 is even. MOD(11, 2) = 1 therefore 11 is odd.

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 Checkpoint
1. Calculate the result for each of these equations:

• DIV(9, 2)

•
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DIV(17, 3)

2. Calculate the result for each of these equations:

• MOD(9, 2)

• MOD(17, 3)

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Example 1

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Taking two numbers as input and adding them together:
OUTPUT("Enter the rst number")
INPUT Num1
OUTPUT("Enter the second number")
INPUT Num2
Total ← Num1 + Num2

Example 2

Subtracting 10 from 20:

Number1 ← 10
Number2 ← 20
Result ← Number2 - Number1

Example 3

Multiplying two values together:

Number1 ← 5
OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT Number2
Result ← Number1 * Number2

Example 4

Dividing 100 by 5:
Number1 ← 100
Number2 ← 5
Result ← Number1 / Number2

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 Example 5
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Finding the whole number after dividing 33 by 7:

Result ← DIV(33, 7)

Example 6

Finding the remainder after dividing 33 by 7:

Result ← MOD(33, 7)

Example 7
Total ← 1 + (2 * 3)
Total ← (1 + 2) * 3

The rst line will result in 7 (3 * 2 = 6 + 1 = 7). The second line will result in 9 (1 + 2 = 3 * 3 =
9).

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 Sequence
Sequence is the rst of three constructs within programs. A sequence is a series of

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statements that are executed (run) once, in the order they are written.

Example 1
OUTPUT("Enter a colour")
INPUT Colour
OUTPUT("Enter your name")
INPUT Name
OUTPUT(Name , " your favourite colour is " , Colour)

This is a sequence. It has 3 lines are executed once, and in the order they are written (line
1, then 2 then 3).

Example 2
X←1
Y←2
Z←3
Total ← X + Y + Z
OUTPUT("Enter the rst value")
INPUT Value1

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 Checkpoint
1. Give the result from the following calculations:

• 10 + 20

•
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20 / 2

• 100 * 4

• 50 - 15

• 20 DIV 2

• 39 DIV 6

• 20 MOD 2

• 40 MOD 6

2. Write a program to take a number as input, multiply it by 2 and output the result.

3. Write a program to store the numbers 10 and 12 in constants, add them together and
then output the result.

4. Write a program to ask a user to enter their age and name, then output a message
that uses both values, e.g. Hello Suzie you are 15 year old.

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 Selection
Selection is the second of the three constructs. In selection a condition is checked and
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this determines which, if any, code is run. There are two forms of selection, IF statements
and CASE statements.

Conditions need logical operators. These allow for comparisons to be made. Table
describes these di erent operators. Each statement using a logical operator results in
TRUE or FALSE.

Logical
Description Example
Operator

10 = 10? would give TRUE. 10 is equal to

= or == Equals to
10. 10 = 2? would give FALSE. 10 is not equal to 2.

10 <> 10? would give FALSE. 10 is not, not equal to 10.

<> or != Not equal to
10 <> 2? would give TRUE. 10 is not equal to 2.

10 < 11? would give TRUE. 10 is less than 11.

< Less than 10 < 10? would give FALSE. 10 is not less than 10.

11 < 10? would give FALSE. 11 is not less than 10.

10 <= 11? would give TRUE. 10 is less than or equal to 10.

Less than or
<= 10 <= 10? would give TRUE. 10 is less than or equal to 10.
equal to

11 <= 10? would give FALSE. 11 is not less than or equal to 10.

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Logical

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Description Example
Operator

10 > 11? would give FALSE. 10 is not greater than 11.

> Greater than 10 > 10? would give FALSE. 10 is not greater than 10.

11 > 10? would give TRUE. 11 is greater than 10.

10 >= 11? would give FALSE. 10 is not greater than or equal to

11.
Greater than
>=
or equal to 10 >= 10? would give TRUE. 10 is greater than or equal to 10.

11 >= 10? would give TRUE. 11 is greater than or equal to 10.

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 IF st tements
The command IF is followed by a condition that is created using the logical operators.
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There are three stages of IF statements; IF, ELSE and ELSEIF.

IF has one comparison and the code inside the IF will only run if that condition is True. If
it is not true, the code in the IF statement will not run.

It follows the structure:

IF comparison THEN
Statements that run if the comparison is true
ENDIF

Example 1

This program will check the value in the variable num1 is equal to 10. If it is, it will output
the word True.
Num1 ← 10
IF Num1 = 10 THEN
OUTPUT("True")
ENDIF

Example 2

This program will check if the value input is greater than the one stored in the variable.
OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT ValueInput
StoredValue ← 100
IF ValueInput > StoredValue THEN
OUTPUT("It is more than 100")
ENDIF

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 ELSE
This is added within an IF statement. If the IF statement’s condition is false then the ELSE

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will

run. You can only ever have one ELSE in an IF statement. ELSE follows the structure:

IF comparison THEN
Statements that run if the comparison is true
ELSE
Statements that run if the comparison is false
ENDIF

Example 1

In this example if the two values are the same it outputs "That's correct". If they are not
the same then the ELSE runs, it will output "Incorrect".
Num ← 10
OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT Guess
IF Num = Guess THEN
OUTPUT("That's correct")
ELSE
OUTPUT("Incorrect")
ENDIF

Example 2

In this example, it will output the smallest number, or one of the numbers if they are both
the same.
Value1 ← 10
Value2 ← 20
IF Value1 < Value2 THEN
OUTPUT(Value1)
ELSE
OUTPUT(Value2)
ENDIF
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 ELSEIF
This allows for a second condition to be used within the same IF statement. If the rst
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condition is False, then a second condition can be checked.

ELSEIF follows the structure:

IF comparison1 THEN
Statements that run if the comparison is true
ELSEIF comparison2 THEN
Statements that run if comparison1 is false, and comparison2 is true
....as many ELSEIFs as you need
ELSE
Statements that run if none of the comparisons are true
ENDIF

Example 1

This will output which number is greater, or nothing will output if they are the same.
Num1 ← 10
Num2 ← 20
IF Num1 < Num2 THEN
OUTPUT(Num2)
ELSEIF Num2 < Num1 THEN
OUTPUT(Num1)
ENDIF

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Example 2

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This uses ELSEIF and an ELSE to output the largest number.
IF Num1 > Num2 THEN
OUTPUT(Num1)
ELSEIF Num2 > Num1 THEN
OUTPUT(Num2)
ELSE
OUTPUT("They are the same")
ENDIF

Example 3

This uses multiple ELSEIFs.

IF Age < 14 THEN
OUTPUT("You are not old enough")
ELSEIF Age < 16 THEN
OUTPUT("You need an adult present")
ELSEIF

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 CASE st tements
A SELECT CASE statement allows the program to take one variable or value, and then
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have lots of di erent options depending what it is equal to.

CASE follows the structure:

CASE OF variable value1:
Statements that run if CASE value1 is true value2:
Statements that run if CASE value1 is false, and value2 is true
OTHERWISE
Statements that run if none of the comparisons are true.
ENDCASE

A case can have as many CASE statements as needed, but can only ever have a maximum
of one default (this runs if none of the comparisons are true).

Example 1

Using a SELECT CASE to output a grade for an in-lesson test. (No example is given for
Python as it does not have a CASE construct and no example is given for Java as it does
not support switch statements with comparisons, e.g. < or >.)
Score ← INPUT("Enter score")
CASE OF score:
>=80: OUTPUT ("A")
>=70: OUTPUT("B")
>=60: OUTPUT("C")
>=50: OUTPUT("D")
OTHERWISE OUTPUT("U")
ENDCASE

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Example 2

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Output a message depending on which number is entered. (No example is given for
Python as it does not have a CASE construct.)
OUTPUT("Enter a number, 1 to 5")
INPUT Choice
CASE OF Choice:
1: OUTPUT("Menu option 1")
2: OUTPUT("Menu option 2")
3: OUTPUT("Menu option 3")
4: OUTPUT("Menu option 4")
5: OUTPUT("Menu option 5")
OTHERWISE OUTPUT("Invalid choice")
ENDCASE

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 Boole n oper tors
There are three Boolean operators that you can use to join conditions: the AND operator,
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the NOT operator and the OR operator.

Boolean
Description Example
Operator

IF 1 = 1 AND 2 = 2
If both This will return TRUE. The left of the AND is true, and the
conditions
are true, the
right of the AND is true. IF 1 = 1 AND 1 > 2
result is true.

This will return FALSE. The left of AND is true, but the right
AND If one or
of AND is false.
both
conditions
IF 1 < -2 AND 0 < -1
are false, the
result is
false. This will return FALSE. Both comparisons are false, so the
result is false.

IF 1 = 1 OR 2 = 2
If one, or This will return TRUE. The left of the OR is true, and the
both,
conditions right of the OR is true.
are true, the
result is true. IF 1 = 1 OR 1 > 2
OR This will return TRUE. The left of OR is true, but the
If both
conditions right of OR is false.
are false, the IF 1 < -2 OR 0 < -1
result is
false. This will return FALSE. Both comparisons are false, so the
result is false.

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Boolean

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Description Example
Operator

IF NOT(1 = 1)
Reverse the The brackets equal to TRUE, 1 equals 1. The NOT makes
condition. If
the it FALSE, so it becomes 1 does not equal 1. IF NOT (End of
NOT condition is File)
True it
becomes This is used with le handing. End of File will return TRUE if
False. there is no data left in the le. The NOT turns this to false.
So while not at the end of the le.

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 Example 1
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This will output the rst message if both test marks are greater than or equal to 90. If only
one mark is greater than or equal to 90 then the second message will output.
OUTPUT("Enter the mark for test 1")
INPUT Mark1
OUTPUT("Enter the mark for test 2")
INPUT Mark2
IF Mark1 >= 90 AND Mark2 >= 90 THEN
OUTPUT("Well done you got top marks on both tests")
ELSEIF Mark1 >= 90 OR Mark2 >= 90 THEN
OUTPUT("Well done you got top marks on one of the tests")
ELSE
OUTPUT("You didn't quite get top marks on the tests, try
again next time")
ENDIF

Example 2

Output the highest number out of three that are input:

OUTPUT("Enter 3 numbers")
INPUT Number1
INPUT Number2
INPUT Number3
IF Number1 > Number2 AND Number1 > Number3 THEN
OUTPUT(Number1)
ELSEIF Number2 > Number3 THEN
OUTPUT(Number2)
ELSE
OUTPUT(Number3)
ENDIF

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 Checkpoint
1. Describe what is meant by selection.

2. Identify the two di erent examples of selection.

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3. Write a program that takes two numbers as input and outputs the largest.

4. Write a program that outputs a question (e.g. a maths question), takes an answer from
a user and outputs if they are correct or not.

5. Ask the user to input a colour. The program should then output a di erent message if
the user enters the word "yellow", "green" or "blue". If neither of these are entered, the
program should output a di erent message. Use a CASE statement.

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 Iteration
An iteration or loop is a programming construct where statements are run either a nite

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number of times, until a condition is true or while a condition is true.

There are three types of loop: count-controlled, pre-condition and post-condition.

Count-controlled
This type of loop uses a counter to run a set number of times. The most common count-
controlled loop is the for loop. This has the structure:
FOR variable ← start value TO endvalue
Code that runs repeatedly
NEXT variable

The loop will run from the start value to the end value, increasing by 1 each time. If the
start value is 1 and the end value is 10, it will run 10 times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10).

Example 1

Output the numbers 1 to 10:

FOR X ← 1 TO 10
OUTPUT(X)
NEXT X

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 Example 2
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Output the 12 times table from 1 to 12:

FOR Count ← 1 TO 12
OUTPUT(Count * 12)
NEXT Count

Example 3

Add together the rst 100 numbers:

Total ← 0
FOR Number ← 1 TO 100
Total ← Total + Number
NEXT Number

You can change the amount that you increase the variable by each time you loop. This is
by using STEP. STEP 1 will increase the counter by 1 each time. STEP -1 will decrease the
counter by 1 each time. STEP 0.5 will increase the counter by 0.5 each time.

Example 1

Output the numbers 10 to 1:

FOR Number ← 10 TO 1 STEP -1
OUTPUT(Number)
NEXT Number

Example 2

Output the numbers from 11 to 20, increasing by 0.5 each time. (No example is given for
Python as it does not support stepping in decimals.)
FOR Value ← 11 TO 20 STEP 0.5
OUTPUT(Value)
NEXT Value

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 Pre-condition
A pre-condition loop tests the condition before starting the loop. This means that if the

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condition is false, the code inside the loop will not run. It loops while the condition is
true. It stops looping when the condition is false.

A WHILE loop is a pre-condition loop. It has the structure:

WHILE condition DO
Code that will run when the condition is true
ENDWHILE

Example 1

Looping while the user enters “Yes”.

InputValue ← "Yes"
WHILE InputValue = "Yes" DO
InputValue ← INPUT("Do you want to continue?")
ENDWHILE

Example 2

Outputting the numbers 1 to 10:

Number ← 1
WHILE Number < 11 DO
OUTPUT(Number)
Number ← Number + 1
ENDWHILE

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 Example 3
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Asking the user to enter a number until they guess the stored number correctly:
Number ← 5
Guessed ← FALSE
WHILE Guessed = FALSE DO
OUTPUT("Guess the number")
INPUT Guess
IF Guess = Number THEN
Guessed ← TRUE
ENDIF
ENDWHILE

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 Post-condition loop
A post-condition loop runs the code inside the loop once, and then checks the condition

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at the end of the loop. This means that the code will always run once.

A REPEAT UNTIL loop is a post-condition loop. It has the structure:

REPEAT
Code that runs inside the loop
UNTIL Condition

In this case it continues until the Condition becomes True. It loops while the condition is
False.

Example 1

Looping until the user enters Yes. (No example is given for Python as it does not have an
in-built post-condition loop.)
REPEAT
OUTPUT("Do you want to stop?")
INPUT Answer
UNTIL Answer = "Yes"

Example 2

Outputting the numbers 1 to 10. (No example is given for Python as it does not have an in-
built

post-condition loop.)
Number ← 1
REPEAT
OUTPUT(Number)
Number ← Number + 1
UNTIL Number > 10

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 Example 3
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Asking the user to enter a number until they guess the correct number.
NumberToGuess ← 15
REPEAT
OUTPUT("Guess the number")
INPUT Guess
UNTIL Guess = NumberToGuess

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 Checkpoint
1. Describe the di erence between a pre-condition and post-condition loop.

2. A program needs a loop that will run 50 times. Which type of loop would be most
appropriate?

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3. Write a program to output the numbers 100 to 200.

4. Write a program to output the 5 times table (from 5 times 1, to 5 times 12).

5. Write a program to ask the user to enter a number continually, until they enter the
number 10, using a post-condition loop.

6. Write a program to output the word “Hello” until the user enters the word “stop”,
using a pre-condition loop.

7. Convert the following count-controlled loop to a pre-condition loop.

FOR Counter ← 1 to 10
OUTPUT(Counter * Counter)
NEXT Counter

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 Totalling
Totalling is adding together a set of values. To write a program to total you need to:

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• Initialise the total to 0.

• Add the values together (either individually or within a loop).

Example 1
Asking the user to enter 10 numbers and totalling them:
Total ← 0
FOR Counter ← 0 TO 10
OUTPUT("Enter a number”)
Total ← Total + INPUT
NEXT Counter
OUTPUT("The total is " & Total)

Example 2

Total the data in an array of 100 elements:

Total ← 0
FOR Count ← 0 TO 99
Total ← Total + ArrayData[Count]
NEXT Count
OUTPUT(Total)

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 Counting
Counting is working out how many of something there are. For example how many
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numbers were entered that were over 10. To write a program to count you need to:

Initialise a counter variable to 0.

Increment (add one to) the counter each time an item is entered, or found.

Example 1

Count how many numbers the user enters until they say to stop:
Count ← 0
Continue ← "Yes"
WHILE Continue = "Yes" DO
OUTPUT("Do you want to continue?")
INPUT Continue
Count ← Count + 1
ENDWHILE
OUTPUT("You continued " & Count - 1 & " times")

Example 2

Count how many numbers in an array of 100 elements are more than 50:
Count ← 0
FOR X ← 0 TO 99
IF ArrayData[X] > 50 THEN
Count ← Count + 1
ENDIF
NEXT X

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 Checkpoint
1. What are the two required elements for a totalling program.

2. What are the two required elements for a counting program.

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3. Write a program to ask the user to input 100 numbers, total the values and output the
total.

4. Write a program to ask the user to input numbers. Count how many numbers are less
than 100, and how many are more than or equal to 100. Stop when the user enters the
number 0.

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 String manipulation
A string is a piece of text. This could be made up of characters, numbers and/or symbols.

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There are lots of di erent string manipulators that you can use; these let you alter strings,
nd values in strings, etc. The two you need to know are length and substring.

Length
This command will return the number of characters in a string. It has the structure:
LENGTH(string).

Example 1
LENGTH("hi")

would return 2.

Example 2
LENGTH("0123")

would return 4.

Substring
This command will return some of the characters in the string. It has the structure:

SUBSTRING(string, start character, number of characters). Depending on your language,

the rst character could be in position 0 or position 1.

Example 1

Using substring:
SUBSTRING("Hello", 0, 1)

This will start at character 0 and take 1 character. It will return "H".

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 Example 2
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Using substring:
SUBSTRING("Goodbye", 4, 3).

This will start at character 4 and take 3 characters. It will return "bye".

Example 3

Output the length of a string that the user inputs:

InputString ← INPUT("Enter a string")
StringLength ← LENGTH(InputString)
OUTPUT(InputString & " is " & StringLength & " characters long")

Example 4

Output the rst 4 characters in a string:

StringData ← "Goodbye"
NewMessage ← SUBSTRING(StringData, 0, 4)
OUTPUT(NewMessage)

Example 5

Output each letter of a string one character at a time. Depending on your language, the
stopping condition might be the length, or the length −1 depending on whether the rst
character is 0 or 1.
OUTPUT("Enter a message")
INPUT StringInput
FOR Count ← 0 to LENGTH(StringInput) - 1
Character ← SUBSTRING(StringInput, Count, 1)
OUTPUT(Character)
NEXT Count

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Example 6

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Output the last 3 characters in a string:
OUTPUT("Enter a message")
INPUT StringInput
NewString ← SUBSTRING(StringInput, LENGTH(StringInput) - 3, 3)
OUTPUT(NewString)

Upper nd lower
The characters a–z can be converted into uppercase and the characters A–Z can be
converted into lowercase. This can be done to an individual character, or to an entire
string at the same time. If a character is already in upper case, trying to convert it to
upper case will not change it.

UPPER(string) LOWER(string)

Example 1

Using UPPER with a string:

UPPER("Hello")

will return "HELLO"

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 Nested statements
A nested statement is one or more selection and/or iteration statements inside another
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selection/iteration statement. This could be an IF statement inside an IF statement or a

loop inside an IF statement or an IF statement in a loop or a loop within a loop. You
might have already used these without realising they were called nested statements.

The position of the start and end of these constructs are important. If, for example, a
loop starts inside an IF statement, the loop must also nish inside the same IF statement.

Example 1

Count how many numbers entered are more than 10, and how many are equal to 10:
MoreThan10 ← 0
EqualTo10 ← 0
FOR X ← 0 TO 99
OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT Number
IF Number > 10 THEN
MoreThan10 ← MoreThan10 + 1
ELSEIF Number = 10 THEN
EqualTo10 ← EqualTo10 + 1
ENDIF
NEXT X

This code has an IF statement nested inside a count-controlled loop.

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Example 2

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Loop counting how many values in an array are more than or equal to 100, and then stop
counting:
Number ← 0
Count ← 0
WHILE Number < 10 DO
DataInArray ← ArrayData[Count]
Count ← Count + 1
IF DataInArray >= 100 THEN
Number ← Number + 1
ENDIF
ENDWHILE

This has an IF statement inside a pre-condition loop.

Example 3

Output only the vowels in a message input if user selects option 1:

OUTPUT("Enter 1 or 2")
INPUT Choice
IF Choice = 1 THEN
OUTPUT("Enter a word")
INPUT Word
FOR Count ← 0 to LENGTH(Word)-1
Character ← SUBSTRING(Word, Count, 1)
IF Character = "a" OR Character = "e" OR Character =“I" OR Character = "o"
OR Character = "u" THEN
OUTPUT(Character)
ENDIF
NEXT Count
ENDIF

This has a FOR loop inside an IF, and another IF inside the FOR loop.

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 Checkpoint
1. Give one example of a nested statement.

2. What will the pseudocode statement LENGTH("Hello World!") return?

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3. What will the pseudocode statement SUBSTRING("HELLO WORLD!", 6, 5) return?

4. Write a program to take a string input from the user, count out how many numbers
are in the string and output the count.

5. Write a program to output a string value backwards.

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 Subroutines
A subroutine is a self-contained piece of code that has an identi er (name), and it can be
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called from anywhere in the main program.

When you decompose a problem into sub-systems, each of the sub-systems can be
written as an individual subroutine. You can then call that subroutine when you need to
use it.

Subroutines are useful because they reduce code. You write the subroutine once, and
then you can call it as many times as you need to, instead of having to re-write it every
time. Each time you re- write it there is a chance of an error, so this reduces the chances
of this error.

There are two types of subroutine: procedures and functions. A function returns a value
to the program that called it. A procedure does not return a value.

Procedures and functions can both take one or more values as parameters. These are
values that are sent to the subroutine. Parameters will be introduced after the basics of
procedures and functions.

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 Procedures
A procedure runs the code inside it, and does not return a value. The structure of a procedure is:

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PROCEDURE identi er()
code to run inside the function
ENDPROCEDURE

The identi er is then used in the main program.

Example 1

A procedure to output the numbers 1 to 10:

PROCEDURE Output1To10()
FOR Count ← 1 to 10
OUTPUT(Count)
NEXT Count
ENDPROCEDURE

The main program can then call the procedure with the code:
Output1To10()

Example 2

A procedure to take two numbers from the user and multiply then together:
PROCEDURE Multiply()
OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT Num1
OUTPUT("Enter a second number")
INPUT Num2
Total ← Num1 * Num2
ENDPROCEDURE

The procedure can be called in the main program with the code:
multiply()

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 Function
A function returns a value to the program that called it. This can be by either using the
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RETURN command, or saving a value to the function’s identi er. Once a value is returned,
the function stops running, so it cannot have any code after otherwise this will not run.

It has the structure:

FUNCTION identi er()
Code to run in the function
RETURN value
ENDFUNCTION

When the function is called it returns a value, so something needs to happen with this
value. It could be output, e.g.
OUTPUT(function identi er)

or it could be saved in a variable, e.g.

variable identi er = function identi er

Example 1

Write a function to ask the user to enter two values, add them together and return the
value:
FUNCTION Multiply()
OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT Num1
OUTPUT("Enter another number")
INPUT Num2
RETURN Num1 * Num2
ENDFUNCTION

To output the return value the main program can use:

OUTPUT(Multiply())

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Example 2

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Write a function to total all the values in an array with 50 elements and then return the
total:
FUNCTION TotalValues()
Total ← 0
FOR X ← 0 TO 49
Total ← Total + Array[X]
NEXT X
RETURN Total
ENDFUNCTION

To store the return value in a variable in the main program:

Total = TotalValues()

Scope
The scope of a variable is the areas within a program that it can be accessed. There are
two scopes: global and local.

If you declare a variable (or constant, or array) as global then it means it can be accessed
by any part of the program. That includes the main program and any subroutines. In
most languages this means declaring it at the top of the program.

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 Example 1
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Declaring a global variable, then outputting its value twice. Once in the main program,
and once in a procedure call call.
GLOBAL Data
PROCEDURE OutputData()
OUTPUT(Data)
ENDPROCEDURE
//main program
Data ← 1
OUTPUT(Data)
OutputData()

If you declare a variable (or constant, or array) as local, then it can only be accessed in
the part of the code where it is declared. If you declare it rst in a subroutine, then it can
only be accessed within that subroutine. If you declare it in the main program, it can only
be accessed in the main program.

Example 2

Creating a local variable to the main program and outputting it twice. Once in the main
program, and once from a subroutine where it is sent as a parameter.
PROCEDURE OutputData(DataParameter)
OUTPUT(DataParameter)
ENDPROCEDURE
Data ← 1
OUTPUT(DataParameter)
OutputData(Data)

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 P r m ters
A parameter is a value that is sent from the main program to the subroutine (procedure or

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function). Parameters are declared inside the brackets after the subroutines name, e.g.
PROCEDURE identi er(parameter1, parameter2 ...) ENDPROCEDURE

or
FUNCTION identi er(parameter1, parameter2 ...) ENDFUNCTION

If a subroutine is declared with parameters, then it must be called with the same number
of parameters. For example:
PROCEDURE Total(Num1, Num2)
ENDPROCEDURE

This has two parameters. When the procedure is called it must have 2 numbers sent to it.
This could be numbers, e.g.
Total(1,2)

or variables. e.g.
Total(Number1, Number2)

Example 1

A function takes two numbers, divides them and returns the result:
FUNCTION Division(First, Second)
RETURN First / Second
ENDFUNCTION

The main program sends 10 and 2, then outputs the return value.
OUTPUT(Division(10, 2))

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 Checkpoint
1. What is the di erence between a function and a procedure?

2. Consider the following function:

FUNCTION Calculate(Num1, Num2)
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Num1 ← Num1 * 2
Num2 ← Num2 + Num1
RETURN(Num1 + Num2)
ENDFUNCTION

3. What will the following statement output?

OUTPUT(Calculate(1,2))

4. Write a program statement to call the following function with the parameter 100 and
output the return value.
FUNCTION FindValue(Number)
Number ← Number + INPUT
RETURN Number
ENDFUNCTION

5. Write a procedure to take three numbers as parameters and output the largest.

6. Write a function that takes two strings as parameters. It takes the rst 3 characters of
each string and combines them, returning the resulting string.

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 Library routines
A program library is a set of subroutines that are pre-written and that can be called within
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a program.

In some programming languages the operators for MOD and DIV are library functions. In
other programming languages they are just operators. For example, 2 MOD 4 is the same
as MOD(2, 4).

Two other library routines that you need to know are ROUND and RANDOM.

ROUND
This will take a real number (decimal) and limit how many numbers there are after the
decimal point.

For example ROUND(10.123, 1) will take the number 10.123 and only leave 1 number after the
decimal point, returning 10.1.
ROUND(4.8293, 2)

will return 4.82.

As with functions, the values it returns need to be used. This could be done by outputting
the return value, or saving it in a variable, e.g.
RoundedValue ← ROUND(77.293, 1)

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 RANDOM
This will generate a random number between two values that it takes as parameters. For

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example,
RANDOM(10, 20)

will return a number between 10 and 20.

RANDOM(1, 4)

will return a number between 1 and 4.

As with functions, the values it returns and therefore need to be used. This could be by
outputting

the return value, or saving it in a variable, e.g.

randomNumber = RANDOM(1, 100)

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 Maintainable programs

When you write a program there are several things to take into consideration to make it a
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maintainable program. This is so that when you come back to it in a week, or a year, you
can still understand what all of the code does. It might be you are writing a program that
someone else needs to understand, so you need to make it understandable to someone
who does not know what the program does.

Me ningful identi iers

Variables, constants, subroutines and arrays all have identi ers (names). If you call a
variable X, then there is no indication of what it is storing or what its purpose is. If
instead, it is called Total, then you know that it is storing a total.

The identi ers for subroutines are usually descriptions of their function. For example, a
procedure to output the numbers 1 to 10 could be called Function1, but then there is no
indication of what it does. Instead, it could be called Output1To10.

Comments
A comment is a description of a line of code, or section of code. To write a comment you
use a special character or characters, for example, //. This tells the program not to
execute the text after this symbol.

You do not need to comment every line of code, for example, the statement Count = 0
does not need commenting, it is clear that it is storing 0 in the variable count.

Example 1

The function of the FOR loop is written as a comment:

FOR Count ← 0 TO 9 //Output the rst 10 elements in the array
OUTPUT(Array[Count])
NEXT Count

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 Example 2

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OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT Num1
OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT Num2
// nd and output the largest number
IF Num1 > Num2 THEN
OUTPUT(Num1)
ELSE
OUTPUT(Num2)
ENDIF

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 Checkpoint
1. Explain how subroutines help make a program maintainable.

2. Describe two other ways of making a program maintainable.

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3. Write a program statement to generate a random number between 1 and 5.

4. Identify the result from the statement ROUND(3.142, 1).

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 Arrays
An array is a data structure. It allows you store multiple pieces of data in one structure
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with one identi er. In an array, each data item must be of the same data type. If it stores
integers, then all values must be integers. If it stores strings, then all values must be
strings.

1-dimension l rr ys
A 1-dimensional array has just one row of data. The best way to visualise an array is with a
table:

Index 0 1 2 3 4

Data 10 5 90 26 87

This array has 5 spaces. Each space has an index. In this array the rst data item is in
position 0, the data value is 10. In the second array space (index 1), the number 5 is stored.

Arrays can be 0-indexed or 1-indexed. This depends on the programming language that
you use. Some arrays start with 0 as the rst space. Some arrays start with 1 as the rst
space.

Arrays use brackets after the identi er to indicate the index you want to access. For
example, Array[0] is accessing the rst element in the array named Array. MyData[3] is
accessing the fourth element in the array named MyData.

Putting data into an array

You need to know the array identi er and the position where you want to store the data.

Example 1

Store the colour "red" in the rst position of the array named Colour:
Colour[0] ← "red"

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Example 2

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Store the colour "yellow" in the second position of the array named Colour:
Colour[1] ← "yellow"

Example 3

Store the number 20 in the sixth position of the array named Numbers:
Numbers[5] ← 20

Getting data out of an array

To access data in an array you need to know the identi er and the position of the data
you want. This will be a value, so you need to do something with this value, e.g. store it in
a variable.

Example 1

Output the rst value in the array Colours:

OUTPUT(Colours[0])

Example 2

Store the second value in the array Colours in a variable:

TheColour ← Colours[1]

Example 3

Add 10 to the third value in the array Numbers:

Value ← 10 + Numbers[2]

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 Using variables as indices
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The index in the array might be a variable that stores a number.

Example

Ask the user which array element to output from the array colours:
OUTPUT("Enter the array element you want to output")
INPUT ToOutput
OUTPUT(Colours[ToOutput])

Using iteration to read and write

If you have a set of values in an array you can use iteration to loop through each of the
elements in turn. For example, you might want to output all of the values one at a time.
You could add together all of the values in an array and output the total. You might want
to take 10 values in from the user and store each one in the array.

These are all best done using a count-controlled loop. This is because you usually know
how many values you want to enter, or how many values there are in the array that you
want to work through.

Example 1

Output all 10 elements in the array Colours:

FOR Count ← 0 TO 9
OUTPUT(Colours[Count])
NEXT Count

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Example 2

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Ask the user to input 20 numbers and store each in the array Numbers:
FOR counter ← 0 TO 19
OUTPUT("Enter a number")
INPUT Numbers[Counter]
NEXT counter

Example 3

Searching the values in the array values that has 50 values, for the data input by the user:
ValueToFind ← INPUT("Enter the value to nd")
FOR Count ← 0 TO 49
IF Values[Counter] = ValueToFind THEN
OUTPUT("Found it")
ENDIF
NEXT Count

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 2-dimension l rr ys
A 2-dimensional array is best viewed as a table with rows and columns.
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index 0 1 2 3 4

0 10 5 90 26 87

1 3 15 74 62 5

2 7 10 85 4 24

In a 2-dimensional array there are two indices. For example, from the table:

Position[0, 0] is 10.

Position[0, 2] is 7.

Position[4, 2] is 24.

Putting data into an array

You need to know which position, i.e. both indices, the across and the down.

Example 1

Store "red" in the rst position in the array Colours:

Colour[0, 0] ← "red"

Example 2

Store 10 in the array Data, in element 4 across and 3 down:

Data[4, 3] ← 10

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Getting data out of an array

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You need to know both indices to access the data.

Example 1

Output the data in the array ArrayData, element 5 across and 1 down:
OUTPUT(ArrayData[4, 1])

Example 2

Access the data in the array colours, in the rst element across and the third down:
ColourAccessed ← Colours[0, 2]

Using variables as indices

Each index can be stored in a variable in the same way as they can be in a 1D array.

Example 1

Output the data in element 4,3:

First ← 4
Second ← 3
OUTPUT(ArrayData[First, Second])

Example 2

Ask the user which element to store in data:

OUTPUT("Enter dimension 1")
INPUT Index1
OUTPUT("Enter dimension 2")
INPUT Index2
Data ← Array[Index1, Index2]

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 Using iteration to read and write
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Due to the two dimensions, you need two nested loops to read through all the data
elements. If you think about the table again, one loop goes through the columns and one
loop goes through the rows.

The rst loop will check row 1. The column will change from 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. The row will stay
the same at 0.

index 0 1 2 3 4

0 10 5 90 26 87

1 3 15 74 62 5

2 7 10 85 4 24

The rst loop will check row 2. The column will change from 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. The row will stay
the same at 1.

It is best to use count controlled loops to go through the array. It has the structure:
FOR row ← rst index to last index
FOR column ← rst index to last index
Code to run
NEXT row
NEXT count

Example 1

DataArray has 10 elements by 3 elements. Output all of the elements in the array:
FOR Row ← 0 TO 2
FOR Column ← 0 TO 9
OUTPUT(DataArray[Column, Row])
NEXT Row
NEXT Count

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Example 2

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Search a 2-dimensional array, with 50 elements by 100 elements, for the value input by the
user:
OUTPUT("Enter a number to search for")
INPUT SearchValue
FOR Row ← 0 TO 49
FOR Column ← 0 TO 99
IF DataArray[Row, Column] = SearchValue THEN
OUTPUT("Found it at " & Column & " " & Row)
ENDIF
NEXT Column
NEXT Row

Example 3

Find and output the total of all elements in the each of the rst dimensions, in an array of
10 elements by 15 elements:
FOR Row ← 0 TO 9
Total ← 0
FOR Column ← 0 TO 14
Total ← Total + TheArray[Row, Column]
NEXT Column
OUTPUT("Index " & Row & " has the total " & Total)
NEXT Row

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 Example 2
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A procedure takes 2 values and outputs all the numbers between the rst number to the
second:
PROCEDURE OutputNumbers(Num1, Num2)
FOR Count ← Num1 TO Num2
OUTPUT Count
NEXT Count
ENDPROCEDURE

The main program taking two values from the user.

OUTPUT("Enter the smallest number")
INPUT FirstNumber
OUTPUT("Enter the largest number")
INPUT SecondNumber
OutputNumbers(FirstNumber, SecondNumber)

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 Checkpoint
1. Explain the di erence between a variable and an array.

2. Explain why the following code will result in an error.

MyData[0] ← 1
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MyData[1] ← 4
MyData[2] ← “7"
MyData[3] ← “9"

3. Write a program to read 10 numbers from the user into a 1-dimensional array named
MyNumbers.

4. Write a program to add together all 100 elements in a 1-dimensional array named
MyNumbers.

5. A 2-dimensional array, MyData, has 20 elements by 5 elements. Write a function that

takes a parameter search value. The function should search MyData and return either
TRUE if the parameters is in MyData, or FALSE if the parameters is not in MyData.

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 File handling
If you have data in a program, when you stop or close a program all of that data is lost. If
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you need to save data to use again later then you need to save it externally into a text le.
The storage and access of data in a le is called le handling.

Re ding from ile

You need to be able to read a single item of data, or a single line of text. This means all of
the data will be on the rst line in the text le, so you do not need to check how many
lines of text are in the le. Once you have read in the data you can then manipulate it, for
example, if it is a line of text you can split it into individual words, or use it as one item of
data.

To read a value from a le you need to:

• Open the le using its lename (the lename will be a string value).

• Read the data value, and do something with it (e.g. output it, store it in a variable).

• Close the le.

You can use the pseudocode commands:

OPEN lename
variable identi er ← READ ( lename)
CLOSE lename

Example 1

Reading and outputting a word stored in the text le data.txt:

OPEN “data.txt"
OUTPUT(READ(“data.txt"))
CLOSE "data.txt"

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Example 2

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Read and output the number stored in the le myNumber.txt by storing the lename in a
variable:
Filename ← "myNumber.txt"
OPEN Filename
TheFileData ← READ(Filename)
CLOSE(Filename)
OUTPUT(TheFileData)

Writing to ile
The speci cation states that you will only need to write a single item of data or a line of
text. This means you will be overwriting any data that is already in the le, you do not
need to worry about appending (to add onto the end) to data that already exists, or
writing multiple values to the same le.

To write a value to a le you need to:

• Open the le using its lename (the lename will be a string value).

• Write the data to the le.

• Close the le.

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 You can use the pseudocode commands:
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OPEN lename
WRITE data
CLOSE lename

Example 1

Write the word "red" to the le colour.txt:

OPEN "colour.txt"
WRITE "red"
CLOSE “colour.txt"

Example 2

Write the number 100 to the le myData.txt storing the lename in a variable:
Filename ← "myData.txt"
OPEN Filename
WRITE 100
CLOSE Filename

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 Checkpoint
1. Why do some programs need to store data in les?

2. What are the three stages that need to be followed to write data to a le?

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3. Write a program to read in a value from the le dataStore.txt and output it.

4. Write a program to ask the user to input a lename, then store the word "house" in the
le.

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 Common algorithms
A search algorithm checks a set of data to identify whether a speci c value exists in the

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data, or not. One example of this is a linear search.

A sorting algorithm takes a set of data and rearranges it to be in a speci c order, e.g. in
ascending alphabetical order. One example of this is a bubble sort.

Line r se rch
In a program you might need to look for a speci c value in a set of data. A linear search
will check each item one at a time, starting with the rst item and continuing until it either
nds the item, or it checks the last value.

Example 1

Search this set of data for the number 4.

5 3 9 4 2 1 8

Compare the rst number (5) with the search value (4). They are not the same.

Compare the second number (3) with 4. They are not the same.

Compare the third number (9) with 4. They are not the same.

Compare the fourth number(4) with 4. They are the same. It has been found.

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 Example 2
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Search this set of data for the character "#".

“a” “v” “!”

Compare the "a" with "#". They are not the same. Compare the "v" with "#". They are not
the same. Compare the "!" with "#". They are not the same. There are no more values, so
"#" is not found.

Example 3

The array dataArray stores a set of data under one identi er. Each element in the array
has an index.

Index 0 1 2 3

Data 1 5 6 8

Search the array for the number 6

Is DataArray[0] = 6? No, DataArray[0] = 1

Is DataArray[1] = 6? No, DataArray[1] = 5

Is DataArray[2] = 6? Yes, DataArray[2] = 6

6 was found in index 2.

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This can now be written as an algorithm:

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FOR ArrayIndex = 0 to LENGTH(Array) -1 //loop through each
element
//check if the current index is the data searched for
IF DataArray[ArrayIndex] = SearchValue THEN
//if it is, output the index where it is found
OUTPUT "Found at " & ArrayIndex
ELSE
//if it not found, increment arrayIndex to check the
next value
ArrayIndex ← ArrayIndex + 1
ENDIF
NEXT ArrayIndex

This algorithm is ine cient because if it nds the search value then it still continues searching.
This is useful if you want to know whether the search value appears more than once.

You can make the algorithm more e cient by stopping as soon as the value is found, for
example:
Found ← FALSE
ArrayIndex ← 0
//run while the value is not found, and you have not checked
//all elements
WHILE Found = FALSE AND ArrayIndex < LENGTH(Array) DO
//check if the current index is the data searched for
IF DataArray[ArrayIndex] = SearchValue THEN
//if it is output where it was found
OUTPUT "Found at " & ArrayIndex
//set found to be true to stop the while loop running
//again
Found ← TRUE
ELSE
//if it is not found, increment ArrayIndex to the next
value
ArrayIndex ← ArrayIndex + 1
ENDIF
ENDWHILE

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 Bubble sort
When writing a program you may need to sort a set of data into a speci c order, for
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example, ascending numerical order or descending alphabetical order.

One method of sorting data is using a bubble sort.

A bubble sort takes the rst 2 values; value 1 and 2, and compares them. If they are the
wrong way around it swaps them. It then puts these back and takes values 2 and 3 and
compares them. If they are the wrong way around it swaps them. This repeats until it has
worked all the way through the list once. It then starts again with the rst two values.

It is called a bubble sort because it acts like a bubble moving across all the elements to
the end, then starting from the beginning.

There are two ways to tell the algorithm when to stop.

1. The algorithm has been through the entire list, the number of elements in the list −1.
So if there are 10 elements, the algorithm runs 9 times. If there are 100 elements, the
algorithm runs 99 times. If there are XElements, the algorithm runs XElements - 1
times. This is the easiest way to program it, but it is not e cient. All elements might
be in the correct order to begin with, but it is still going to run through the same
number of times.

2. Either the algorithm has run through the list XElements - 1 times, or it has run through
the list, checking all of the elements, and it has not made any changes.

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A bubble sort can be written as a pseudocode algorithm. There are di erent versions of

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the algorithm. Here are two di erent versions.

Version 1

Stopping only when it has run array length −1 times.

//loop array length - 1 number of times

FOR NumberPasses ← 0 to LENGTH(DataArray) - 1
//loop through each element in the array
FOR Index ← 0 to LENGTH(DataArray) - 1
//check if the data is in the correct order
IF DataArray[Index] > DataArray[Index + 1] THEN
//if not swap the items
Temp ← DataArray[Index]
DataArray[Index] ← DataArray[Index + 1]
DataArray[Index + 1] ← Temp
ENDIF
NEXT Index
NEXT NumberPasses

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 Version 2
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Stopping when there are no changes or when it has run array length − 1 times.

NumberPasses ← 0
//continue until one pass has no changes (changes = false)
//or it has looped array length - 1 times
WHILE Changes = FALSE or NumberPasses <= LENGTH(DataArray) - 1
DO
//reset changes each time a new pass starts
Changes ← FALSE
//loop through each element in the array
//check if the data is in the correct order
FOR Index ← 0 to LENGTH(DataArray) - 1
IF DataArray[Index] > DataArray[Index + 1] THEN
//if not swap the items
Temp ← DataArray[Index]
DataArray[Index] ← DataArray[Index + 1]
DataArray[Index + 1] ← Temp
Changes ← TRUE
ENDIF
NEXT Index
ENDWHILE

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 Checkpoint
1. Perform a linear search for the number 6 in the following data: 10 5 6 8 1 2

2. Perform a linear search for the letter “f” in the following data: bulpfagh

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3. Perform a bubble sort to put the following data into ascending numerical order:
1562901

4. Perform a bubble sort to put the following data into descending numerical order: 60 2
40 52 3 5

5. Explain the di erence in e ciency between the two di erent bubble sort algorithms.

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 Tot lling
Totalling is adding a group of values together to give a total.
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For example, a person buys items at a supermarket. The items cost: $0.50, $1.00, $1.00,
$15.50, $21.30 The total is 0.5 + 1 + 1 + 15.5 + 21.3 = $39.30 To do this in a program you need
to:

Initialise a variable to store the total, e.g. Total ← 0.

Add the value to the current contents of the total, e.g. Total ← Total + Value.

Example 1

Totalling the 10 values input by the user:

Total ← 0 //Initialise the total variable to 0
FOR X ← 0 TO 9
Total ← Total + INPUT("Enter a value") //Add the input to the total
NEXT X
OUTPUT Total

Example 2

Totalling the values in an array named dataArray:

TotalValue ← 0 //Initialise the total variable to 0
FOR Count ← 0 TO LENGTH(DataArray) - 1
TotalValue ← TotalValue + DataArray[Count] //Add the inputto the total
NEXT Count
OUTPUT Total

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 Counting
Counting is working out how many of something there are. For example, counting how

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many ngers you have or counting how many items you bought when you went shopping.

To do this in a program you need to:

Initialise a variable to start the count, e.g. CountItems ← 0.

Add 1 to the count variable each time, e.g. Count ← Count + 1.

Example 1

Count the number of items the user enters:

Count ← 0 //initialise the count variable
Number ← 0
WHILE Number <> -1 DO // loop until the user enters -2
Number ← INPUT("Enter a number. Enter -1 to stop”)
Count ← Count + 1 //add 1 to count each time a number is input
ENDWHILE

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 Example 2
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Count how many numbers in an array are below 10, and how many are more than 20:
CountBelow10 ← 0 //initialise both counters to 0
CountAbove20 ← 0
FOR X ← 0 to LENGTH(NumberArray) //loop through each array element
//if the number is less than 10
IF NumberArray[x] < 10 THEN
CountBelow10 ← CountBelow10 + 1 //increment the counter
//if the number is greater than 20
ELSEIF NumberArray[x] > 20 THEN
CountAbove20 ← CountAbove20 + 1 //increment the counter
ENDIF
NEXT X

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 Finding the minimum
The minimum value is the smallest value within a set. For example, the marks for a class

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are entered and the lowest mark is the minimum.

To do this in a program you need to:

initialise a minimum variable to be a large value, beyond those that will be entered, e.g.
Minimum ← 9999.

Compare each value to the minimum variable, e.g. IF Number < Minimum.

If it is, it replaces the minimum value, e.g. minimum ← number. This means the new value
is the minimum, so the next time a value is compared, it is checking it with the new
minimum value.

Example 1

Find the smallest number input by a user:

Minimum ← 9999 //initialise minimum to large value
Number ← 1
WHILE Number >= 1 DO //loop until the user enters 0
Number ← INPUT("Enter a number or 0 to stop”)
IF Number < Minimum THEN // check if the number entered is smaller than //
the current minimum
Minimum ← Number //if true then make minimum because the number
ENDIF
ENDWHILE

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 Example 2
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Find the smallest number in an array of data:

Minimum ← 999999
FOR X ← 0 TO LENGTH(NumberArray)
IF NumberArray[X] < minimum THEN
Minimum ← NumberArray[X]
ENDIF
NEXT X

Finding the m ximum

The maximum value is the largest value within a set. For example, the marks for a class are
entered and the highest mark is the maximum.
To do this in a program you need to:

• Initialise a maximum variable to be a small value, beyond those that will be entered, e.g.
Maximum ← -9999.

• Compare each value to the maximum variable, e.g. IF Number > Maximum.

• If it is, it replaces the maximum value, e.g. Maximum ← Number. This means the new
value is the maximum, so the next time a value is compared,it is checking it with the
new maximum value.

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Example 1

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Find the largest number input by a user:
Maximum ← -9999 //initialise maximum to small value
Number ← 1
WHILE Number >= 1 DO //loop until the user enters 0
Number = INPUT("Enter a number or 0 to stop")
IF Number > Maximum THEN // check if the number entered is
larger than //the current maximum
Maximum ← Number //if true then make maximum because
the number
ENDIF
ENDWHILE

Example 2

Find the largest number in an array of data:

Maximum ← -1 // initialise the maximum value to a small number
FOR X ← 0 TO LENGTH(NumberArray)
//check if the number entered is larger than the current maximum
IF NumberArray[X] > Maximum THEN
Maximum ← NumberArray[X] //if true store the value in maximum
ENDIF
NEXT X

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 Finding the ver ge
The average here is referring to the mean. This is the total of all the values added
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together, then divided by how many numbers there are.

For example, if the data is 1, 3, 5, 8, 4, 2, 6, 9 ,

the average = (1 + 3 + 5 + 8 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 9) / 8 = 40 / 8 = 5

To do this in a program you need to use the count and total from earlier in this section.
The average is then calculated with the formulae Total / Count.

Example 1

Find the average of the numbers input by a user:

Count ← 0 //initialise the count to 0
Total ← 0 //initialise the total to 0
Number ← 1
WHILE Number >= 1 DO //loop until the user enters 0
Number ← INPUT("Enter a number or 0 to stop")
Total ← Total + Number //add the number entered to the total
Count ← Count + 1 //add 1 to the count
ENDWHILE

Example 2

Find the average of the numbers in an array of data:

Count ← 0 //initialise the count to 0
Total ← 0 //initialise the total to 0
FOR X ← 0 TO LENGTH(NumberArray)
Total ← Total + NumberArray[X] //add value to total
Count ← Count + 1 //add 1 to count
NEXT X

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 Checkpoint
1. Explain the di erence between totalling and counting.

2. A program allows numbers to be entered between 20 and 200, and nds the smallest
and largest entered. Identify appropriate values to initialise the variables Smallest and

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Largest.

3. Write an algorithm to input 40 numbers and output the total and average.

4. Write an algorithm to input 100 numbers and output the smallest and largest.

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 Validation on input
Validation is the checking of data that is input to make sure it is reasonable, and/or within

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set bounds. For example, making sure that a number is entered for an age or limiting the
range of numbers that can be entered.

There are di erent types of validation.

R nge check
A range check assesses whether data is within one or two bounds. For example, an age
must be between 0 and 100. A date must be before today’s date.

Range checks can be programmed using selection to produce an error, or within a loop
that keeps asking you enter a value until it is valid.

Example 1

Using selection:
This algorithm will check whether a number is higher than 1 and less than 10.
Number ← INPUT("Enter a number between 1 and 10")
IF Number < 1 OR Number > 10 THEN
OUTPUT("Invalid")
ELSE
OUTPUT("Valid")
ENDIF

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 Example 2
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Using a loop:

This algorithm will check if a number is higher than 1 and less than 10. It will continually
ask for a value to be input until the number is valid.
Number ← INPUT("Enter a number between 1 and 10")
WHILE Number < 1 OR Number > 10 DO
OUTPUT("Invalid please try again")
Number ← INPUT()
ENDWHILE

Length check
A length check will check the number of characters that are present. This could in a
string, for example, the length of “hello world” is 11, the space is also a character. It could
be in a variable, for example, in this example, 8 will be output:
TheData ← "123 ABC!"
OUTPUT(LENGTH(TheData))

The length of a piece of data can be found using a variety of commands depending on
the language you are using. The following are all valid and there are many more:
LENGTH(theData)

A length check can be programmed using selection or iteration.

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Example 1

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Using selection:

This algorithm will check if the data input has 10 or less characters to be invalid,
otherwise (10 or more) it is valid.
Data ← INPUT()
IF LENGTH(Data) < 10 THEN
OUTPUT("Invalid")
ELSE
OUTPUT("Valid")
ENDIF

Example 2

Using iteration:

This algorithm will also check the length but will continually ask for this to be input until
it is 10 or more characters long.
Data ← Input()
WHILE LENGTH(Data) < 10 DO
OUTPUT("Invalid, please try again")
Data ← INPUT()
ENDWHILE

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 Type check
Data can be in di erent forms, including an integer (whole number), real (decimal
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number), string (any characters), Boolean (true or false). There are two ways of writing a
type check:

1. Use a function such as .GetDataType() to return the data type, that you can then
compare to the one you want.

2. Use a function such as .IsInteger() to return True if it is an integer and False otherwise.

Example 1

Using selection:
This algorithm will check if the data entered is an integer value to be valid.
INPUT Data
//check if the data entered is an Integer
IF Data.GetDataType() <> Integer THEN //if it is not an integer
OUTPUT ("Invalid")
ENDIF

Example 2

Using iteration:
This algorithm will continually ask for the data to be input until it is a string value.
INPUT Data
//loop while the data entered is not a string
WHILE Data.IsString = FALSE DO
OUTPUT("Invalid please try again")
INPUT Data
ENDWHILE

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 Presence check
A presence check makes sure that some data has been entered. Programming languages

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can make use of the value null, or for a string value an empty string represented by "".

Example 1

Using selection:
This algorithm outputs Invalid if there is no data entered.
INPUT Data
IF Data = NULL THEN //check if the data entered is null
OUTPUT("Invalid")
ENDIF

Example 2

Using iteration:
This algorithm continually takes an input while there is no data entered.
INPUT Data
WHILE Data = "" DO //loop while there is nothing in data
OUTPUT("Invalid please try again")
INPUT Data
ENDWHILE

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 Form t check
Some data may need to be entered in a speci c way, for example, a date must be: _ _ / _ _ /
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_ _ _ _, where each space is a number – a format check makes sure the data is entered this
way. An ID number may need to be 1 number followed by 3 characters.

Example 1

Using selection:

An ID number entered needs to be 1 number followed by 2 characters. This algorithm

checks the characters and outputs whether it meets the required format.
INPUT IdNumber
//check if the rst character is a number, and characters 2
//and 3 are strings
IF(SUBSTRING(IdNumber, 0, 1).IsNumeric = TRUE AND
SUBSTRING(IsNumber, 1, 2) = TRUE) THEN
OUTPUT("Valid")
ELSE
OUTPUT("Invalid")
ENDIF

Note that SUBSTRING(String, X, Y) starts at character x in the string, and returns y

number of characters.

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Example 2

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Using a loop:

This algorithm checks whether an input is in the format two numbers, /, two numbers, /,
four numbers.
INPUT Date
//loop while the data is not in the correct format
WHILE (SUBSTRING(Date, 0, 2).IsNumeric = FALSE OR //2 numbers
SUBSTRING(Date, 2, 1) <> "/" OR // 1st slash
SUBSTRING(Date, 3, 2).IsNumeric = FALSE OR //2 numbers
SUBSTRING(Date, 5, 1) <> "/" OR //2nd slash
SUBSTRING(Date, 6, 4).IsNumeric = FALSE) DO // 4 numbers, year
OUTPUT("Invalid")
INPUT Date
ENDWHILE
OUTPUT("Valid")

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 Check digit
A check digit is calculated from a set of numbers, and is input with the numbers. When the
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data has been input, the calculation is performed on the data again and the result is
compared with the nal number (the check digit).

Example

This algorithm calculates the check digit using the method 5 digit number input. 9999, 4
digits used to calculate 5th check digit, and compares it to the input value.
INPUT Code
//extract 1st digit
Digit1 ← Code DIV 1000
Code ← Code - (1000 * Digit1)
//extract 2nd digit
digit2 ← Code DIV 100
Code ← Code - (100 * Digit1)
//extract 3rd digit
Digit3 ← Code DIV 10
Code ← Code - (10 * Digit1)
//extract 4th digit
Digit4 ← DIV(Code, 1)
CheckDigit ← Code
//calculate check digit from data entered
//multiply by position and add together
Total ← (Digit1 * 4) + (Digit2 * 3) + (Digit2 * 2) + Digit3
NewCheckDigit ← MOD(Total, 11) // nd Mod 11 of total
NewCheckDigit ← 11 - NewCheckDigit //subtract result from
newCheckDigit
//check if the calculated check digit is the same as the last
digit in the //code
IF NewCheckDigit = CheckDigit THEN
OUTPUT("Correct data entry")
ELSE
OUTPUT("Incorrect data entry")
ENDIF

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 Veri ication of data
When entering data from another source, for example, a paper copy, it is important to

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make sure you have entered exactly what was written originally. This is called veri cation,
a check that you have copied the data accurately.

There is a di erence between entering data accurately, and entering the correct data.
Veri cation only checks you have copied it accurately, the actual data may still be
incorrect if the original was incorrect.

Two forms of veri cation are a visual check and double entry.

A visual check is where you compare the data entered to the original. For example,
reading each line from a paper copy and checking it is identical on the computer.

A double entry check is where the same data is entered twice, usually by di erent people.
The computer will then check whether there are any di erences in what they each
entered.

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 Checkpoint
1. What is validation?

2. Give three examples of validation checks.

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3. What is the purpose of veri cation?

4. Identify which validation rule this algorithm uses: INPUT Num

IF Num > 0 AND Num < 100 THEN
OUTPUT “Valid"
ELSE
OUTPUT “Invalid"
ENDIF

5. Identify which validation rule this algorithm uses:

REPEAT
INPUT Value
UNTIL Value <> NULL AND Value <> “"

6. Write a validation routine to input a word and check that it is more than 10 characters
long.

7. Write a validation routine to input a number and check that it is an integer value.

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 Trace tables
A trace table is a structure to help you follow an algorithm, for example, to nd an error,
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or to work out what the algorithm does.

Each statement in an algorithm is run manually, and the values that are written to
variables are written in the table in the order the changes are made.

Each column in the table is designated to one variable. There can also be a column for
any outputs to be written in. User prompts are also entered in the trace table, these can
be entered in a separate column or as an output (because they will be output). For
example, x = input(“Enter a number”), the text “Enter a number” is a user prompt and will
need to be added to the trace table.

Speci c inputs can be given to test di erent parts of the algorithm.

Tr ce t ble with selection

To create a trace table you need to identify all of the variables in an algorithm. Each
variable should have its own column in the trace table. There should also be an output
column if the program will output any data or strings.

For example, trace the following algorithm with the input values 1 and 3.
INPUT Number1
INPUT Number2
IF Number1 > Number2 THEN
OUTPUT(Number1)
ELSE
OUTPUT(Number2)
ENDIF

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There are two variables and there is an output (each variable has a column, and the

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output has a column).

Number 1 Number 2 Number 3

You then complete this table by reading through the algorithm one line at a time. It is
important not to jump ahead and guess what the algorithm will do. Read one line and
perform that action.

Run line 1 of the code (input values 1, 3):

INPUT Number1

Number 1 Number 2 Number 3

Run line 2 of the code (input values 1, 3):

INPUT Number2

Number 1 Number 2 Number 3

1 3

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 Run the IF statement
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IF Number1 > Number2 THEN

…
ELSE
OUTPUT(Number2)

Number 1 Number 2 Number 3

1 3 3

Tr ce t ble with loops

When you are following an algorithm that includes a loop (iteration), some of the code
will be repeated. To follow the code run one line at a time as before, and when you get to
the end of the loop, go back to the start of the loop.

For example: trace the following algorithm with the input values 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.
01 Count←0
02 InputValue ← 1
03 Total←0
04 WHILE InputValue > 0 DO
05 INPUT InputValue
06 Total ← Total + InputValue
07 Count ← Count + 1
08 ENDWHILE
09 OUTPUT "The total is ", Total
10 OUTPUT "There were ", Count, " Numbers"

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Start by creating the trace table with each of the variables and the output. There are 3

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variables in this algorithm:

Count Input Value Total Output

1. Run the rst 3 lines of code. These are the initialisations, lines 01, 02 and 03.
01 Count←0
02 InputValue ← 1
03 Total←0

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

2. Run line 04.

04 WHILE InputValue > 0 DO

LOOP is 1 so this is TRUE meaning that the code inside the loop is run

Run line 05 with the rst input value of 4.

05 INPUT InputValue

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

4
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 3. Run lines 06 and 07.
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06 Total←Total+ Total←0+4 InputValue

07 Count←Count+1 Count←0+1

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

1 4 4

Line 08:
08 ENDWHILE

sends you back to line 04.

04 WHILE InputValue > 0 DO

InputValue is 4, so while 4 > 0 is TRUE to run line 05 with the second input value of 3.
05 INPUT InputValue

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

1 4 4

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5. Lines 06 and 07 run.

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06 Total←Total+ InputValue Total←4+3
07 Count←Count+1 Count←1+1

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

1 4 4

2 3 7

6. Line 08 ENDWHILE returns to line 04.

04 WHILE InputValue > 0 DO WHILE 3 > 0 is TRUE. Run lines 05, 06 and 07.
05 INPUT InputValue InputValue ← 2
06 Total←Total+ InputValue Total←7+2
07 Count←Count+1 Count←2+1

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

1 4 4

2 3 7

3 2 9

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 7. Line 08 again returns to line 04. WHILE 2 > 0 is TRUE. Run lines 05, 06 and 07.
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05 INPUT InputValue InputValue ← 1

06 Total←Total+ InputValue Total←9+1
07 Count←Count+1 Count←3+1

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

1 4 4

2 3 7

3 2 9

4 1 10

Line 08 returns to line 04 again. WHILE 1 > 0 is TRUE. Run lines 05, 06 and 07.
05 INPUT InputValue InputValue ← 0
06 Total ← Total + InputValue Total←10+1
07 Count ← Count + 1 Count←4+1

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

1 4 4

2 3 7

3 2 9

4 1 10

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9. Line 08 returns to line 04 again. WHILE 0 > 0 is FALSE this time, so the loop does not

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run.

Jump to line 09 run line 09 and 10.

09 OUTPUT "The total is ", Total
10 OUTPUT "There were ", Count, " numbers"

Count Input Value Total Output

0 1 0

1 4 4

2 3 7

3 2 9

4 1 10 The total is 10

There were 5
numbers

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 Finding the purpose of an algorithm

A trace table can help you work out the purpose of an algorithm. By following an
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algorithm step- by-step you can see what happens to the values, what changes are made,
and when these are made. From this you can determine the purpose of the algorithm.

Finding the purpose with tr ce t ble

Describe the processes in this algorithm and state its purpose.
INPUT Value1
INPUT Value2
INPUT Value3
IF Value1 > Value2 AND Value1 > Value3 THEN
OUTPUT(Value1)
ELSEIF Value2 > Value1 AND Value2 > Value3 THEN
OUTPUT(Value2)
ELSE
OUTPUT(Value3)
ENDIF
OUTPUT(Value1 + Value2 + Value3)

1 . First test the algorithm with a set of data that you come up with (if they are not
provided for you). For example, test this algorithm using 1, 2 then 3.

2 . Create a trace table by following the algorithm with the data input.

Value1 Value2 Value3 Output

1 2 3 3

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3. Repeat the process with a di erent set of data, for example, this time using 10, 5, 1.

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4. Complete the trace table.

Value1 Value2 Value3 Output

10 5 1 10

16

Keep on repeating this process until you can identify the pattern.

In this case it is outputting the largest number input and then outputting the total of the 3
numbers input.

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 Describing n lgorithm
When you are describing an algorithm you need to do more than repeat the line of code
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using English statements. For example, in the following code, for line 02 don’t just say, ‘it
is a for loop from y is 0 to x.’ This is stating what each part of the code is, but it does not
describe the algorithm.
01 INPUT X
02 FOR Y ← 0 TO X 03 OUTPUT Y
04 NEXT Y

You can do a trace table to help you work out the purpose of the algorithm before
describing it if that helps you. This algorithm has three parts: line 01, line 02 and line 03.
These are summarised below:

• Takes a number as input. (line 01)

• Loops from 0 to the number that has been input. (line 02)

• Outputs the values from 0 to the number. (line 03)

From this you can develop a description of the algorithm, for example:

The algorithm takes a number from the user, and then outputs all of the numbers from 0 to the
number input.

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 Finding errors in a program and
correcting the errors

To nd an error in an algorithm you need to know the purpose of the algorithm. You can

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then test the algorithm with di erent data, completing trace tables if needed, to nd out
what the algorithm actually does. Once you know the di erence between what it does
and should do, you can start to identify the errors and the changes you need to make.

Using tr ce t ble to ind errors in progr m

Using a trace table will allow you to follow each step in the algorithm and by comparing
this to the intended outcome you can nd where it goes wrong, and then work out how
to correct it.

For example, this program should take 5 numbers as input and output the total of all the
numbers.
01 Total←1
02 Quantity ← 1
03 WHILE Quantity < 5 DO
04 INPUT Number
05 Total ← Number
06 Quantity ← Quantity + 1
07 ENDWHILE
08 OUTPUT(Total)

First dry run the algorithm. If not provided, you will need to identify some test data to
use. This algorithm should take 5 numbers as input, so you could use 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Then work out what the result of the algorithm should be. It outputs the total, so it
should output: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15

Now draw a trace table for the algorithm (revisit the section on trace tables if needed)
and then run each step of the algorithm, writing the values in the table.

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 Total Quantity Number Output
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1 1

1 2 1

2 3 2

3 4 3

4 5 4

Now look at the results and where it has gone wrong:

1 The total is overwritten each time, it should be added to.

2 Total starts with 1 but this will add another 1 to the total, so it should be 0.

3 Only four numbers can be input, it should be ve.

Let’s take each of the problems one at a time to solve them.

1 The total should not be overwritten. Line 05 overwrites the total. This should be Total
← Total + Number.

2 The total should not start at 1, it should be 0. Line 01 writes 1 to total. This line should
be Total ← 0.

3 Only 4 numbers are input, it should be 5. There are two ways this can be changed, both
are valid. Either Line 02 can be Quantity ← 0 or line 03 can be WHILE Quantity < 6.

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 Finding errors by re ding the code
You may not always need to use a trace table, or you may not want to. There are many

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di erent ways of nding the errors. In this example you will look for each of the
requirements in the algorithm to determine whether it has been met.

The following algorithm should take 3 numbers as input, and output the largest value and
the average value.
01 Total←0
02 Largest ← 999
03 FORX←0TO2
04 INPUT Data
05 IF Data < 999 THEN
06 Large ← Data
07 ENDIF
08 Total ← Total + Data
09 NEXT X
10 OUTPUT Largest
11 Average ← Total / 3
12 OUTPUT Average

Re-read the description: take 3 numbers as input, and output the largest value and the
average value.

This can be split into three sections:

1. Take 3 numbers as input.

2. Output the largest value.

3. Output the average value.

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 The two outputs need to be calculated before being output, so they can be added to the
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requirements:

1. Take 3 numbers as input.

2. Calculate the largest value.

3. Output the largest value.

4. Calculate the average value.

5. Output the average value.

Now check the rst requirement:

Does it take 3 numbers as input?

The for loop goes from 0 to 2, so it will run 0, 1, 2 = 3 times. Inside the loop it inputs a
value each time. This is correct.

The second requirement: Calculate the largest value.

To nd the largest it needs to:

A. Initialise a largest variable with a low number. This is not met. Line 02 largest is set to
999 but this should be a very small value, e.g. Largest ← -1

B. It should check if the data input is larger than the data in largest. This is not met. Line
05 checks if data is less than 999. It should be larger. IF Data > Largest THEN

C. Line 06 replaces the value in Large with data, but the identi er is incorrect, the
variable is named largest. Largest ← Data

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The third requirement:

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Output the largest value.
Line 10 outputs the largest value, this is correct.
The fourth requirement:
Calculate the average value.
The average is calculated by totalling the inputs and then dividing by the number of
inputs. Line 08 totals the data entered, but it uses the wrong identi er, it should be data
not DATA.
Total ← Total + Data

Line 11 works out the average correctly. The fth requirement:

Output the average value.

Line 12 outputs the average correctly.

In this case the errors and corrections have been identi ed along the way. You can also
combine this with using test data to check both the original algorithm and to check that
your corrections are accurate.

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