ICT Chapter 9

Programming
Problem Solving
 Programming is a process of problem solving
 Problem solving techniques
◦ Analyze the problem
◦ Outline the problem requirements
◦ Design steps to solve the problem

Problem solving process

 Understanding the problem
 Defining the problems and boundaries
 Planning the solution
 Check the solutions and select the best one

Modularization
 breaking a large program into modules
Advantages of Modularization
- lack of bugs
- easy troubleshoot
- several developers can work in each part separately
- can use the developed part of software wherever needed
Disadvantages
o same variable usage in the code can be a problem

Top-down Design and Stepwise Refinement

 Computer programmers use a divide and conquer approach to problem solving:
◦ a problem is broken into parts
◦ those parts are solved individually
◦ the smaller solutions are assembled into a big solution
◦ These techniques are known as top-down design and modular development

Structure Chart
 shows the breakdown of the system into its lowest manageable levels by dividing bigger
complex system into small units.
◦ Model  represents the process or the task of the system

Student Registration

◦ Arrow line  used to show the connection between the models

Algorithms
 A set of well-defined instructions in sequence to solve a problem
 It is also a representation of solution to a problem
 There are 2 ways:
◦ Flow chart
◦ Pseudo codes
Flow charts
 A graphical representation of the sequence of operations in a program

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ICT Chapter 9

 It shows the sequence of instruction in a single program or a subroutine

Subroutine

Rules of Flow charts

 All boxes should be connected with arrows
 No lines only arrows
 Decision box has 2 output points
 Formulate the main line of logic and then incorporate the details
 Maintain consistency
 No deeper details
 Use common statements
 Use suitable variable names
 Keep simple as possible
 Use connectors if flowchart is drawn to another page
Pseudocodes
 An informal way to express the design of a computer program
 Provides idea to programmer on how to build the software step by step
 Written in simple English terms so even a non-programmer can understand
 Can be converted into any programming language
 Component of pseudocode:
◦ Variables used to identify the memory location with the value
◦ Assignment place a value to the variable
◦ Input/output get input from the user and print the result
◦ Control structure control statements based on conditions
▪ Sequence
▪ Selection
▪ Repetition
Advantages of pseudocodes
 Readable and understandable
 Explains each line

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ICT Chapter 9

 Bridge between programmer and program

 Helps to document everything
Evolution of Programming Languages
 1st programmer – Madam Ada Augusta Lovelace
 She prepared it for Analytical Engine created by Charles Babbage (Father of Computer)
Generations of Computer Languages
1. First Generation
 Machine language – 0 and 1
 Instructions given through front panel switches directly to CPU
 No translators
 Machine dependent
 High speed as no translations needed
2. Second Generation
 Assembly language – Symbols were used to minimize complexity of binary
 Short words called mnemonics were used
 Assemblers were used for the translation
3. Third Generation
 As in 2GL many instructions were given for a simple task they had to reduce it, so they
introduced high level languages
 Codes can be used without having to be rewritten unlike assembly language
 Machine independent
 Compiler and interpreter used to convert from high level to machine language
 Ex: C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic
4. Fourth Generation
 Can be prepared easily than 3GL
 Machine independent
 Compiler and interpreter used to convert from high level to machine language
 Ex: Perl, PHP, Python, SQL
Programming Paradigms
Imperative Languages
 Giving step by step procedure to solve a problem
 Controlling the steps of instructions in action and keeping track of step-by-step changes in
variables and instances
 Ex: C++, C, Java, PHP, Python
Declarative Languages
 Giving instructions prioritizing the output
 Ex: SQL, Prolog
Object Oriented Languages
 All instructions are given in a single file so it was difficult to find any error, if any
 Addition of new instructions was also difficult
 OOL was used to identify the tasks and separate them in different files
Characteristics of high-level languages
 Easy to learn
 Easy to detect errors
 Machine independent
 Availability of liberty functions
 Shorter program

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

 Well defined syntax and standard

 Other programmers also can understand code
Need of Program Translators
 To convert high level to low level languages, translators like compilers and interpreters are
used
Source program
 Set of instructions written by a programmer using computer language.
 Readable to human but cannot be executed by the CPU
Object program
 Both compiler and interpreter work differently
 Compilers reads the source code and creates a file by compiling the code into machine
language called as object program.
 If any errors are found then the error report will be displayed without translating the code
Program translators
 There are 3 types of translators
◦ Compiler
◦ Interpreter
◦ Assembler
Interpreters
 Translates line by line
 No precompiled program like compilers
 Slower than compiler
 When error found, it will stop in that line and display the error message
Advantages of interpreter
- Troubleshooting is easy
Disadvantages of interpreter
- Slow as it converts line by line
- Every time you run it, interpreter will have to translate again and again
Compiler
 Compilers reads the source code and creates a file by compiling the code into machine
language
 If any errors are found then the error report will be displayed without translating the code
Advantages of compiler
- Compiler compiles only once
- Low memory used as it is compiled only once
Compiler Interpreter
 Faster  Slower
 More memory needed for object code  No extra space needed
 Debugging is hard as the errors are  Displays error quickly as it finds the
displayed after checking the entire error
program
Assemblers
 Assemblers convert assembly language to machine language
Linkers
 A program that takes one or more object files generated by the compiler and combine them
as a single executable program
 A computer program consists of number of modules.

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

 Several files are generated when converting program into object program so all these files
should be operated linking together. This task is done by the linkers
Features of IDE
 Code editor  Debugger
 Translator  Execute
Python
Comment
#This is a comment
Advantages of comment
 Easy to understand the code
 Can refer the codes
 Another programmer can understand the code easily
Constants and Variables
 Variable –the name given to a memory space allocated in RAM to store the values of the
program which can change during execution of the program
 Constant –the name given to a memory space allocated in RAM to store the values of the
program which do not change during execution of the program
Rules for variables
 No reserved word
 Cannot start with a number
 No space
 No symbols except _
Local variable and global variable
 Local variable – a variable inside a function. This cannot be used in another function.
 Global variable – it can be used at any place of any function
Primitive data type
 Numbers
◦ Intwhole numbers Ex: 25, 500, -1024
◦ Longlarge numbers Ex: 841981619848
◦ Floatdecimal numbers Ex: 45.3, -855.33
◦ Complexvarious types of numbers Ex: 65.9J, 900.6J
 String
 List
 Tuple
 Dictionary
Operators
Arithmetical operators
 +  *  **  %
 -  /  //

Relational Operators
 <  <=  ==
 >  >=  != or <>
Assignment Operators
 And
 Or
 Not

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

Bitwise Operators
 Bitwise AND (&)  Bitwise XOR (^)  Right shift (>>)
 Bitwise OR (|)  Left shift (<<)
Operator precedence
 ()
 **
 *,/,**,//
 +,-
 <<,>>
 &
 ^
 |

Control structure
 Sequence
 Selection
o If
o If else
o If elif else
 Iteration
o While
o For
Break
 Condition inside a loop to stop the loop before completion
break
Continue
 Condition inside a loop to repeat the loop after completion
continue

Sub Program
 Functions help to break program into smaller parts
 Types of functions
- Built in functions functions included in python by default
- User defined functions built by the programmers according to their requirements
def printword():
print(“hello world!”)
return()
Types of errors in Python
1. Syntax errorsviolation of python rules in coding
2. Runtime errorserrors occurring during execution
3. Logical errorserrors in the logical instruction of the code

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

To handle these errors, we use,

try:
statement
except:
statement
String

Checking functions
isnumeric()
islower()
isupper()

List

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

 An array of data that can be used to store compound data (different types of data)
Ex:

Tuples
 Collection of elements separated by commas
 It is immutable can not be changed once created
Ex:
name = (“john”, “napier”, “newton”)
Dictionary
 An unordered collection of items which has a key and a value for a single element
 No duplicate key
 Case sensitive
 Any type for values
Ex:

File Handling
file_store = open(file_name,mode)
The modes
r = only read
r+ = read and write
w = only write / replace existing data
w+ = read and write / replace existing data
a = appends at end of file / if file not available then the file is created and data is added
a+ = read data and create file with append ability
file = open(“myfile.txt”, “w”)
file.write(“hello world\n”)
file.write(“this is the next line\n”)
file.close()

file = open(“myfile.txt”, “r”)

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

print(file.read())
print(file.readline())
print(file.readline(1))
file.close()
DBMS
 Types of databases
- MySQL - Interbase
- Oracle - Sybase
- GadFly - Microsoft SQL Server 2000
- PostgreSQL - Informix
import mysql.connector
conn = mysql.connector.connect(user= “root”,password= “1234”,host= “localhost”,database=
“student_db”)
new = conn.cursor()
new.execute(“select * from student”)
print(new.fetchall())
conn.close()

Searching techniques
 Sequential searchstep by step ahead in an array until the target is found
o Weakness – takes time if the number to be found is in the last (if more data then
efficiency is low, if less data, then efficiency is high)
 Binary search-should be in order, compares the searched number with the middle number
and searches the list accordingly
Sorting techniques
Arranging an unordered list is called sorting
 Selection sort-(Arranging in order) compares the 1 st block with the 2nd, if the 2nd data is small
then it swaps the data, then it checks 1st with 3rd and likewise arranges the whole set
 Bubble sort compares the adjacent two blocks and swaps
IF statement

IF ELSE

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

IF ELIF ELSE

WHILE loop

FOR loop

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

Functions

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK

ICT Chapter 9

M. A. F. Rameeza B. Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Software Engineering - UK