Programming Basics

Programming Basics

1. Data Types

   • Programming languages have five main data types: INTEGER, FLOAT, BOOLEAN, CHARACTER, STRING
     • Float is any number that has a decimal point
       • Example; 0.15,-5.87,100.0
     • Integers are whole numbers only
       • Example ; 0,6,2432,-999
     • Boolean can only take one of two values, usually TRUE or FALSE
       • Example: TRUE/FALSE, 1/0,YES/NO
     • A Character is a single letter, number or symbol
       • Example; "A","K","5","-","$"
     • A string is used to represent text, it is a collection of characters
   • Casting is used to change the data type
     • Languages have functions that let you manually convert between data types- this is known as casting

2. Operators

   • Operators are special characters that perform certain functions
   • The basic arithmetic operators are straight forward
     • The arithmetic operators take two values and perform a maths function on them
     • Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Divisions
   • Assignment and Comparison Operators
     • The assignment operator, = s used to assign values to constants and variable
     • Comparison operators compare the expression on their left hand side to the expression on their right hand side and produce a Boolean value

3. Constants and variable

   • A constant is assigned a data value at design time that cant be changed. If you attempt to change it the interpreter or complier will return an error