Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 1

Lab 1: Input, Processing, and Output

This lab accompanies Chapter 2 of Starting Out with Programming Logic & Design.

Name: Michael Schultz; Devin Hill

Lab 1.1 – Algorithms

This lab requires you to think about the steps that take place in a program by writing
algorithms. Read the following program prior to completing the lab.

Write a program that will take in basic information from a

student, including student name, degree name, number of
credits taken so far, and the total number of credits
required in the degree program. The program will then
calculate how many credits are needed to graduate. Display
should include the student name, the degree name, and
credits left to graduate.

Step 1: Examine the following algorithm. (Reference: Designing a Program, page 31).

1. Get the student name.

2. Get the degree program name.
3. Subtract the number of credits taken so far from the
required credits for the degree.
4. Get the number of credits required for the degree program.
5. Get the number of credits the student has taken so far.
6. Display the input information in Step 1 and 2.
7. Display the calculated information.

Step 2: What logic error do you spot and how would you fix it?
The logic error is that the program is trying to process information it has yet to
receive. The answer would be to move 3 below 5

Step 3: What steps require user interaction (Ex: user must type in some input)?
Steps 1, 2, 4, and 5
 Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 2

Lab 1.2 – Pseudocode

This lab requires you to think about the steps that take place in a program by writing
pseudocode. Read the following program prior to completing the lab.

Write a program that will take in basic information from a

student, including student name, degree name, number of
credits taken so far, and the total number of credits
required in the degree program. The program will then
calculate how many credits are needed to graduate. Display
should include the student name, the degree name, and
credits left to graduate.

Step 1: This program is most easily solved using just five variables. Identify potential
problems with the following variables declared in the pseudocode. Assume that the
college has the ability to offer half credits. (Reference: Variable Names, page 39-40).

Variable Name Problem If Yes, what’s wrong?

(Yes or No)
Declare Real creditsTaken No
Declare Real credits Degree Yes No spaces, should be Declare
Real creditsDegree
Declare Int creditsLeft Yes Should be real, should be Declare
Real creditsLeft
Declare Real studentName Yes Should be a string, Declare String
studentName
Declare String degreeName No

Step 2: Complete the pseudocode by writing the two missing lines. (Reference:
Prompting the User, page 42).

Display “Enter student name.”

Input studentName
Display “Enter degree program.”
Input degreeName
Display “Enter credits needed for degree.”
Input creditsDegree
Display “Enter the number of credits taken so far.”
Input creditsTaken

Step 3: What two things are wrong with the following calculation? (Reference: Variable
Assignment and Calculations, page 43).

creditsLeft = creditsTaken – creditsDegree

creditsDegree should be subtracted from, not creditsTaken, and you have to have
Set before creditsLeft
 Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 3

Step 4: Write the exact output you would expect from the following line of code if the
user of the program enters “Bill Jones”. (Reference: Displaying Items, page 40 – 41).

Display “The student’s name is “, studentName

The student’s name is Bill Jones

Step 5: Write the exact output you would expect from the following line of code if the
user of the program enters a degree that is 63 credits in total and they have taken 40
credits. (Reference: Displaying Items, page 40 – 41).

Display “This program requires “, creditsDegree, “ credits

and they have taken “, creditsTaken, “ so far.”
This program requires 63 credits and they have taken 40 so far.

Step 6: Complete the following pseudocode to solve the programming problem.

1. //This program takes in student information and calculates

2. //how many credits the student has left before graduation.
3. //Information is then printed to the screen.

4. //Declare variables
5. Declare Real creditsTaken
6. Declare Real creditsDegree
7. Declare Real creditsLeft
8. Declare String studentName
9. DeclareStringdegreeName

10. //Ask for user input

11. Display “Enter student name.”
12. Input studentName
13. Display “Enter degree program.”
14. Input degreeName
15. Display “Enter credits needed for name.”
16. Input creditsDegree
17. Display “Enter the number of credits taken so far.”
18. Input creditsTaken

19. //Calculate remaining credits

20. Set creditsLeft = creditsDegree - creditsTaken

21. //Display student name, degree program, and credits left.

22. Display “The student’s name is “, studentName
23. Display “You taking classes for ”, degreeName
24. Display “You need ”, creditsLeft, “ more credits to earn
this degree.”
 Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 4

Lab 1.3 – Flowcharts

This lab requires you to think about the steps that take place in a program by designing a
flowchart. While designing flowcharts can be done with paper and pencil, one mistake
often requires a lot of erasing. Therefore, a flowcharting application such as Raptor or
Visio should be used. This lab will give you a brief overview of Raptor. Read the
following program prior to completing the lab.

Write a program that will take in basic information from a

student, including student name, degree name, number of
credits taken so far, and the total number of credits
required in the degree program. The program will then
calculate how many credits are needed to graduate. Display
should include the student name, the degree name, and
credits left to graduate.

Step 1: Start Raptor; notice the Raptor screen. This window is your primary tool for
creating a flowchart. Prior to adding symbols, save your document by clicking on File
and then Save. Select your location and save the file as Lab 1-3. The .rap file extension
will be added automatically.

Step 2: Notice the MasterConsole screen. This window is used to show your program
output once your flowchart is completed. The Clear button will clear the console to view
a fresh run of your program.
 Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 5

Step 3: Return to the Raptor screen to begin adding symbols into your flowchart. Your
flowchart should follow the pseudocode in Lab 1-2, Step 6. While a rectangle is
normally used for declaring variables, there is no easy way to do this in Raptor. Since
this is an important part of flowcharting, we will do this using a comment box. To do
this, Right-Click on the Start symbol and select Comment. In the Enter Comment box,
type the variables your program will need. Below is a start to how it should look.

Step 4: The next step in your flowchart should be to ask for user input. Click the Input
Symbol on the Left and Drag and Drop to the flow line between Start and Stop. Double
Click on the Input Symbol to begin entering information. Enter Enter student name
in the top box. Enter studentName in the variable box. Below is how it should look.

Step 5: Continue the Step 4 directions for all your input statements, changing each Input
symbol to reflect the appropriate user interaction.

Step 6: The next step in your flowchart is to process any calculations that exist. Click
on the Assignment symbol and drag it to the flow line between the last input statement
and the end symbol. Double click on the Assignment symbol to enter your code. In the
Set box, put the name of your storage variable. In the To box, put the expression part of
your formula. Below is how it should look.
 Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 6

Step 7: The next step in your flowchart is to display the requested output to the screen.
Click the Output symbol and drag it to the flow line between the assignment statement
and the end symbol. Double click on the Output symbol to enter your code. Under
Output Type, select Output Expression since we want to display both a sentence and the
contents of a variable. In the box, type "Student name is " + studentName.
Below is how it should look once you click Done.

Step 8: Continue the Step 7 directions for all your output statements, changing each
Output symbol to reflect the appropriate requested output information.

Step 9: Once your flowchart is complete, click on Run and then Execute to Completion
on the Raptor menu. Follow the flow of your program to see if it processes properly.
Your Master Console window should show output similar to

Student name is Bill Jones

The degree program is Computer Programming
Credits left to graduation is 39
----Run finished----

Step 10: The final step is to insert your finished flowchart in the space below. Inside
Raptor, select File and the Print to Clipboard from the menu. Inside Word in the space
below, select Edit and Paste.
Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 7
 Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 8

Lab 1.4 – Python Code

This lab requires you to translate your work in the pseudocode and flowchart to actual
code using Python. Read the following program prior to completing the lab.

Write a program that will take in basic information from a

student, including student name, degree name, number of
credits taken so far, and the total number of credits
required in the degree program. The program will then
calculate how many credits are needed to graduate. Display
should include the student name, the degree name, and
credits left to graduate.

Step 1: Examine the following line of code. What do you expect as output to the screen?

studentName = raw_input(‘Enter student name. ‘)

Enter student name.

Step 2: Examine the following line of code. What type of value do you expect the user
of the program to enter?

creditsDegree = input(‘Enter credits required for

degree.’

A number value

Step 3: Select with an X which function should be used to take in input from the user.
The functions raw_input or input are determined based on the data type of the variable.

raw_input( ) input( )
studentName _____X_____ ____________
creditsDegree ____________ ____X______
creditsLeft ____________ ______X____

Step 4: If the user of the program types Bill Jones to the question in Step 1, what do
you expect the output to the screen to be when the following line of code processes?

print 'The student's name is', studentName

The student’s name is Bill Jones

 Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 9

Step 5: Examine the following line of code. If the program requires 63 credits, and the
student has 20 left, what do you expect the output to the screen to be?

print 'The program requires ', creditsDegree, ‘ credits and

they have taken', creditsTaken, 'credits so far.'

The program requires 63 credits and they have taken 40 credits so far.

Step 6: Start the IDLE Environment for Python. If the Edit window for entering code
does not come up, go to Options, Configure IDLE, click on the General tab, and under
Startup Preferences select Open Edit Window. Close and reopen the Environment. Prior
to entering code, save your file by clicking on File and then Save. Select your location
and save this file as Lab1-4.py. Be sure to include the .py extension.

Step 7: Code should start with documentation. Document the first few lines of your
program to include your name, the date, and a brief description of what the program does.
Each line that you want to comment out must begin with a # sign. For example:

#Sally Smith
#January 15
#This program ...

Step 8: After documentation, enter the following line of code into your program.

studentName = raw_input(‘Enter student name. ’)

Step 9: On the menu, select Run and then Run Module. Observe your program in
action. If you get a syntax error, you must fix it before you are able to run your program.
Click OK and review the highlighted syntax error to fix it.

Step 10: Repeat Step 8, but change the statement so that it asks the user to enter their
degree name. It is up to you whether you want to repeat Step 9 each time you code a line.
It is recommended for beginning programmers so they can immediately identify syntax
errors. Also, one syntax error at a time seems better than many all at once.

Step 11: Next, you should write the code that will ask the user how many credits are
required in the degree. This can be done using the input function since it is a numeric
value. Enter the following line of code into your program.
Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 10

creditsDegree = input(‘Enter the number of credits

required for the degree. ‘)

Step 12: Repeat Step 11 but change the statement so that it asks the user to enter the
number of credits they have taken so far.

Step 13: Next, add your calculation. This is done very simply with the following code.

creditsLeft = creditsDegree – creditsTaken

Step 14: Add the following line of code to your program.

print 'The student's name is', studentName

Step 15: If you have not tested your program in a while, now is a good time to try it out.
Go to Run and Run Module and observe what happens. SYNTAX ERROR!

Step 16: While nothing stands out as being wrong in Step 15, notice that the word
student’s is actually causing the problem. To the language, the apostrophe looks as if
it is the end of the statement. Since it is not, it must be quoted out by putting a \ in front
of it. Change the line to the following.

print 'The student\'s name is', studentName

Step 17: Finish your code by printing the remaining of the requested statements. Your
final output might look like the following.

Enter student name. Bill Jones

Enter degree name. Computer Programming
Enter the number of credits required for the degree. 63
Enter the number of credits taken so far. 24

The student's name is Bill Jones

The degree name is Computer Programming
There are 39.0 credits left until graduation.

Step 18: When your code is complete and runs properly, on the Menu, go to Edit and
then Select All, then Edit and Copy. Paste the code below.

studentName = raw_input ("Enter student name: ")

degreeName = raw_input ("Enter degree name: ")
creditsDegree = input ("Enter credits needed for degree: ")
creditsTaken = input ("Enter credits taken: ")
creditsLeft = creditsDegree - creditsTaken
print "The student name is ", studentName, "."
print "You are taken classes for ", degreeName, "."
Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 11

print "You need ", creditsLeft, " more credits to earn this
degree"
Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 12

Lab 1.5 – Programming Challenge 1 – Team Average

Write the Algorithm, Pseudocode, Flowchart, and Python code for the following
programming problem.

Team Average

A college wants you to write a program for them that will calculate the average
number of wins for their football team over the past five years. The user of the
program should be able to enter the number of wins each year. The program will
calculate the average number of wins during that five year period and display that
information to the screen.

The Algorithm

1. Take in the wins for each of the five years

2. Calculate the average
3. Display the average to the screen

The Pseudocode

//Declare variables
Declare Int year1
Declare Int year2
Declare Int year3
Declare Int year4
Declare Int year5
Declare Real averageWin

//inputs
Display “Enter wins for year 1: ”
Input year1
Display “Enter wins for year 2: ”
Input year2
Display “Enter wins for year 3: ”
Input year3
Display “Enter wins for year 4: ”
Input year4
Display “Enter wins for year 5: ”
Input year5

//calculations
Set averageWins = (year1+year2+year3+year4+year 5)/5

//output
Display “Your average for the past five years is “, averageWins, “.”
Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 13

The Flowchart

The Python Code

year1=input ("Enter wins for year 1: ")

year2=input ("Enter wins for year 2: ")
year3=input ("Enter wins for year 3: ")
year4=input ("Enter wins for year 4: ")
year5=input ("Enter wins for year 5: ")
averageWins = (year1 + year2 + year3 + year4 + year5)/5
print "Your average for the past five years is ", averageWins,
"."
Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 14

Lab 1.6 – Programming Challenge 2 – Pedometer Calculator

Write the Algorithm, Pseudocode, Flowchart, and Python code for the following
programming problem.

Pedometer Calculator

A dietician wants you to write a program that will calculate the number of calories
a person can lose by walking at a slow pace for a mile; however, the user will
have only the distance given by a pedometer, which is measured in steps and not
miles. Assume each mile a person walks is equivalent to 2000 steps, and that for
every mile walked, a person loses 65 calories. Allow the user of the program to
enter the number of steps taken throughout the day. The program will calculate
the distance in miles and the number of calories lost. The user of the program
should also be able to enter the day of the week the data is being calculated for.
The day of the week, the distance in miles, and the calories lost should then be
displayed to the screen.

The Algorithm

1. Take in steps and day of the week

2. Calculate calories lost
3. Display calories lost on the day entered

The Pseudocode

//declare
Declare String dayWalked
Declare Int walkedSteps
Declare Real caloriesLost

//input
Display “What day are you calculating for?: ”
Input dayWalked
Display “How many steps did you take?: ”
Input walkedSteps

//calculate
Set Real caloriesLost = (walkedSteps/2000)*65

//output
Display “You lost ”, caloriesLost, “ on “, dayWalked, “.”

The Flowchart
Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design 15

The Python Code

dayWalked = raw_input ("What day are you calculating for?: ")

stepsWalked = input ("How many steps did you take on this day?: ")
caloriesLost = (stepsWalked/2000)*65
print "You lost",caloriesLost,"calories on",dayWalked,"."