May/June 2003

3. (a) Describe each of the following types of program error, giving an example in each case.

(i) Syntax error.

(ii) Logic error.
(iii) Arithmetic error. [6]

(b) Describe two methods used to assist in finding program errors. [4]

May/June 2004

3 (b) Explain what is meant by the following types of programming error. Give an example in each case.

(i) Syntax.
(ii) Logic.
(iii) Arithmetic. [6]

May/June 2008

2. (c) When a computer runs a program, the program may fail to run successfully because there are errors in the
code.

Describe two types of error that may be present, giving an example of each. [6]

Oct/NOV 2010. P11/P12

2. (b) State what is meant by the following types of programming error:

(i) syntax error [1]

(ii) arithmetic error [1]

Oct/NOV 2010. P13

2 (b) State what is meant by the following types of programming error:

(i) syntax error [1]

(ii) logic error [1]

Page 1 of 9
May/June 2011. P23

1 Jodelle needs to write program code that will check the password to her personal computer.

It checks each attempt to enter the password and closes the screen after three wrong attempts.

She wants the log-in screen to display:

• a request to enter the password

• space to enter the password
• how many attempts have been made
• a message if the log-in has been unsuccessful
• a means of returning to the previous screen

Jodelle first produces her solution using pseudocode. She wants the password to be 'poppy', the name of her cat.

Attempt ← 1

REPEAT

INPUT Password

Attempt ← Attempt +1

UNTIL Password = “poppy” OR Attempt = 3

IF Password = “poppy”

THEN

OUTPUT “password correct”

ELSE

OUTPUT “no valid password entered”

ENDIF

(d) There is an error in this pseudocode.

(i) One way to correct this is to change the first line. Rewrite this line to make the pseudocode correct. [1]
(ii) State the type of error that Jodelle made. [1]

Oct/NOV 2011. P21

1 Ahmed is writing a program to record the data of members of the school football squad.

(g) The squad has 30 players. Ahmed stores the records in an array called Squad. To calculate how many players are
defenders he designs this pseudocode:

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Dtotal ← 0

ArrayPosition ← 1

REPEAT

IF Squad[ArrayPosition].Position = 'd'

THEN

Dtotal ← Dtotal + 1

ENDIF

ArrayPosition ← ArrayPosition + 1

UNTIL ArrayPosition = 30

This pseudocode will only consider the first 29 records in the array.

(i) State the name of this type of error. [1]

(ii) State the line that needs changing. [1]
(iii) Re-write this line to ensure the pseudocode will consider all 30 records. [1]

May/June 2012. P21/22

2 Philipe is trying different ways of designing the process of entering data into an array.

He declares a variable called ArraySize and sets it to 3.

He declares an array Number[ArraySize].

He then writes the following pseudocode.

Element ← 1

WHILE Element < ArraySize DO

INPUT Number[Element]

Element ← Element + 1

ENDWHILE

(b) (i) There appears to be an error in the above pseudocode. State the type of error. [1]

(ii) The error can be corrected by changing one line. Write the corrected line of pseudocode. [1]

Page 3 of 9
May/June 2012. P23

3 Liliane wants to write a program to play chess. She will represent the board of 8 x 8 squares, using the 2-
dimensional array Board[8,8].

Each element of the array will need initialising to zero. Later, if a chess piece is on a square, it will take a value of 1.

She starts by writing pseudocode for the initialisation of a 4 x 4 board. This is easier to trace.

01 RowNo ← 1

02 WHILE RowNo < 4 DO

03 ColumnNo ← 1

04 WHILE ColumnNo < 4 DO

05 Board[RowNo,ColumnNo] ← 0

06 ColumnNo ← ColumnNo + 1

07 ENDWHILE

08 RowNo ← RowNo + 1

09 ENDWHILE

(b) There is an error in the pseudocode.

State the type of error. [1]

May/June 2013. P21/22

(b) Before making the program available it must be tested.

(i) State when and how syntax errors are detected. [2]

May/June 2013. P23

4 (c) Meena has compiled the program and she thinks it is working.

What two types of error could still occur in the program?

For each type give an example. [4]

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Oct/Nov 2013.P21

3 An array, MyResource, size 5000, data type INTEGER, is used to store the resource IDs.

An array, KeptIn, size 5000, data type STRING, is used to store where a resource is kept.

A resource with resource ID MyResource[X] is kept at KeptIn[X], where X is an integer variable.

Juan writes the pseudocode that searches MyResource for a given resource ID and outputs where the resource is
kept.

flag ← 0

INPUT P

FOR X ← 1 TO 5000

IF myresource[X] = P

THEN

OUTPUT keptin[X]

flag ← 1

ENDIF

NEXT

IF flag = 0

THEN

OUTPUT "Not Found"

ENDIF
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(e) (i) If Juan were to perform a dry run on the pseudocode using a trace table, state one type of error he might find.
Give an example.

State another type of error he might find later. Give an example. [4]

Oct/Nov 2013.P22

3 Aisha wants to write a program that checks the password to her personal computer. The program should check
each attempt to enter the password correctly and should terminate after three wrong attempts.

She wants the log-in screen to display:

• a prompt to enter the password

• space to enter the password
• how many attempts have been made
• if the log-in has been successful or not
• a means of cancelling the log-in process

Aisha writes her first try at designing the code in pseudocode. She wants the password to be "Aisha", her name.

1 Attempt ← 0

2 REPEAT

3 INPUT Password

4 Attempt ← Attempt + 1

5 UNTIL (Password = "Aisha") OR (Attempt > 3)

6 IF Password = "Aisha"

7 THEN

8 OUTPUT "Password correct"

9 ELSE

10 OUTPUT "No valid password entered"

11 ENDIF

(c) This piece of code does not do what Aisha intended. There is an error.

(i) State the type of error. [1]

(ii) There are several ways to correct this. One is to change line 5.
Rewrite line 5. [1]

Page 6 of 9
Oct/Nov 2013.P23

3 An array, Catalog, size 8 000, data type INTEGER, is used to store the equipment IDs.

An array, KeptIn, size 8 000, data type STRING, is used to store where a piece of equipment is kept.

A piece of equipment with equipment ID Catalog[X] is kept at KeptIn[X] where X is an integer variable.

Ashvin writes the pseudocode that searches Catalog for a given equipment ID. The output is to be where the piece of
equipment is kept.
flag ← 0

INPUT P

FOR X ← 1 TO 8 000

IF catalog[X] = P

THEN

OUTPUT keptin[X]

flag ← 1

ENDIF

NEXT

IF flag = 0

THEN

OUTPUT “Not Found”

ENDIF
Page 7 of 9
(e) Ashvin will perform dry runs on the pseudocode using a trace table and a variety of test data. He hopes to find
any logic errors and avoid run-time errors occurring later.

(i) State what is meant by a logic error and give an example. [2]
(ii) State what is meant by a run-time error and give an example. [2]

May/June 2015.P21/P22

2 The pseudocode below is intended to calculate the sum of a sequence of integers input.

The dummy value −1 ends the input.

DECLARE x : INTEGER

DECLARE Result : INTEGER

x ← 0

Result ← 0

WHILE x <> -1

INPUT x

Result ← Result + x

ENDWHILE

OUTPUT Result

(iii) What is the error in the given pseudocode? [1]

(iv) State the type of error. [1]

(b) Rewrite the pseudocode so that it works correctly. [3]

Oct/Nov 2015.P21/P23

2 (b) Alia writes pseudocode to convert a coded number using

• the function DenaryDigit() from part (a)
• the string manipulation functions MID() and LENGTH()
Study the pseudocode:
01 PROCEDURE ConvertToDenary(CodedNumber : STRING)
02
03 Denary ← 0
04
05 FOR i ← 1 TO LENGTH(CodedNumber)
06 ThisChar ← MID(CodedNumber, i, 1)
07 ThisNumber ← DenaryDigit(ThisChar)
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08 Denary ← Denary + (ThisNumber * 10)
09 ENDFOR
10
11 OUTPUT Denary
12 ENDPROCEDURE
(iii) State the type of error Alia made in her pseudocode. [1]
(iv) There are two other types of error that can occur when writing or executing program
code.
Name each type of error and describe when and how it is detected. [6]

Oct/Nov 2015.P22

2 (f) Ali has written the final program code. There are syntax and logic errors in his program.
(i) Describe when and how syntax errors are detected. [2]
(ii) Describe when and how logic errors are detected. [2]

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