Computational Thinking

A brief summary of Week 1

Variable: “A variable is a symbol which is used to represent a varying expression or quantity.”

OR
“A variable is a symbol used for representing an unspecified/unknown term.”

Example: 1. Counting number of cards present in the “Scores” dataset.

For that we created a variable called Count and initialized it to 0.
Then we add one to Count as we move a card from pile 1 to pile 2.
Count = 0 + 1 = 1

Iteration: “Repetition of a process”

OR
“Iteration is the repetition of a process in order to generate a sequence of outcomes”

Example: In the previous example we saw that every time we move cards from pile 1 to pile 2, we
add one to variable Count. This is nothing but an iteration.

Filtering: “Some specific decision”

OR
“In an iteration if we are only interested in specific item/data which are special to us and
not all items.”

Example: If we want to only count students from Chennai. In this case also we will move all cards
from pile 1 to pile 2 but we will add one to variable Count only when we find students from
Chennai.

Multiple filtering: For example if we want to find number of female students from Chennai.
Filters: (i) Checking gender: Male/Female
(ii) Checking City/Town
So, here total two filters are required to get the number of female students from Chennai.
Flowchart: “Pictorial representation of an algorithm”
OR
“A flowchart is a step-by-step diagrammatic representation using some defined shaped boxes to
solve a task.”

Rectangular box: Process or activity: Set of operations that change the value of data/variables

Arrow: Flowline: Shows the order of execution of the program steps

Diamond: Decision: Determines which path/direction the program will take (True/False)

Oval shaped box: Terminal: Indicates the start or end of the program.

Datatypes: (Lecture 1.7): “Defines the values that the variable can take, and the set of operations
that are permitted.”

Basic datatypes:

Boolean datatype: Range: Has only two values: True and False
Operation: AND, OR (Result type: Boolean) Result will be Boolean type
either True or False
Example:
If (X.Gender == ‘M’ AND X.City/Town == “Chennai”)

If (X.Gender == ‘M’ OR X.City/Town == “Chennai”)

Integer datatype: Range: ...., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3,.....

Operation: +, -, x, / (Result type: Integer)
<, >, == (Result type: Boolean)

Character datatype: Range: All alphanumeric: A, B,....Z, a, b,.....,z, 0, 1,.....,9

Special characters: ., $, #, @, .....
Operation: == (Result type: Boolean)
Example: ‘C’, ‘1’, ‘#’, ‘M’, ‘F’
*
String: Range: Any sequence of characters
Operation: == (Result type: Boolean)
Example: “IIT Madras”, “21F00055”, “can@1#23”

Subtype of basic datatypes: “Restrict the basic datatypes in terms of their ranges and constrained
on their operations”

Examples: Seq. No.: Ranges: 0, 1, 2, ..., Max (some reasonable number)

Operation: None of the integer operations make sense
: Boolean operations such as “==” can be performed
Marks: Ranges: 0, 1, ...., 100
Operation: Integer operation such as +, -

Transformation of sub-datatypes:
Date: 15 Jan : It is a string datatype.
Questions: What will be the date after 3 days?

We assume, 1 Jan : 0
2 Jan : 1
3 Jan : 2
--------
15 Jan : 14
-------
18 Jan: 17
-------
31 Dec : 364 (for non-leap year)

15 Jan Tranform 14
Integer operation

14 + 3

Print
18 Jan 17

Marks: Physics marks = 80.5

Mathematics marks = 90.5

We want to add the above two subject marks.

80.5 80.5x100 = 8050

90.5 90.5x100 = 9050

Then we performed integer operation, 8050 + 9050 = 17100

After that we need to bring back in original form by using “print” (defined in lecture)

print(17100) = 171.00
Lists and Records:

List: “A sequence of data elements of same or may be of different datatypes”

Example: (i) Subject marks obtained by Clarence: [63, 88, 73]

(ii) Details of Clarence: [9, “Clarence”, ‘M’, “6 Dec”, “Bengaluru”, 63, 88, 73, 224]

Record: “Stores data with multiple fields: each of which has a name and a value”
Example: A card of the Scores dataset.
{“Seq. No.”: 9, “Name”: “Clarence”, “DoB”: “6 Dec”, “Town/City”: “Bengaluru”,
“Mathematics”: 63, “Physics”: 88, “Chemistry”: 73, “Total”: 224}
 A brief Summary of Week 2
Conditional termination in iteration:

Iteration: “Repetition of a process”

Termination in iteration: When Pile 1 is empty.
Conditional termination: Stops the iteration when a desired/specific data is found.

Check for desired card and Pile 2

Pile 1
Stops iteration when card is found

Examples: (i) Find a card in which all subject marks are above 90 from the “Scores” dataset.
(ii) Find a card in which three different category of items are present from the “Shopping
Bills” dataset.
Example:
A = True
while(Pile 1 has more cards and A){
Read card X
if(X.City == “Chennai”) {
A = False
}
Move card X to Pile 2
}

Pseudocodes: “Textual representation of procedures”

Example:
Start
Count = 0
while (Pile 1 has more cards) {
Pick a card X from Pile 1
Count = Count + 1
Move card X to Pile 2
}
End

Assigment statement: Count = 0

Sum = Sum + X.Mathematics

Equality statement: A == B

A=3
B=5
A == B --- False
B=3

A == B --- True
Conditional execution:
(i) One time: if (condition) {
---------
}

: if (condition) {
--------
}
else {
-------
}

(ii) Repeatedly: while (condition) {

-----------
}
 A Brief Summary of week 3
1. Presentation of datasets in the form of a Table
• Each attribute/field is a column in the table (like: Card No., Gender, Total, etc)
• Each card is a row in the table.
•
Card No Name Gender DOB ---
0 Bhuvanesh M 7 Nov
1 Harish M 3 June

• Example: Sores dataset, Words dataset.

• Difficultify when a card has a variable number of attributes

Multiple rows:– duplication of data
Split as separate tables:- need to link via unique attributes
• Example: Shopping bill card
2. Below average students in two iterations (non-nested) and grade allocation
• First we compute average marks of some subject (1st iteration)
• And then in next iteration we compare each student marks with average marks of
that particular subject
Eg:
while(-----){
sum = sum + X.Maths
count = count + 1
}
avg = sum/count
while(-----)
if(not (X.Maths < avg)) ---- (not True) --- (False)
avgS = avgS + 1
}
}

Grade allocation: Find maximum and minimum marks of a subject

: Divide into garde bands and
: Count the numbers of students per grade bands

3. Systematic process of hypothesis verification

Example: To find the relation between word length and frequency

: Assumption – Long words >= 6 and Short words <= 5
- High frequency > 1 and Low frequency = 1

High frequency words

8 1

Short words Long words

15 23

Low frequency words

Hypothesis: (i) High frequency words tend to be short.

: (Words which have high frequeny and are short) / (Total high frequency words)
= 8 / (8 + 1) = 8 / 9 = 0.89
(ii) Low frequency words tend to be long?
4. Three prize problem
For getting prizes, it should satisfy three conditions:
(i) Should be in top three of total marks
(ii) Should be in a top three in at least one subjects
(iii) And there should be a representation of boys and girls

5. Introduction to procedures and parameters

• Procedure name: SumMaths

• Argument receives value: gen
• Calling procedure with a parameter: SumMaths (F)
• Argument variable is assigned parameter value
• Procedure call SumMaths(F) starts with, gen = F
• Procedure returns the value stored in Sum using
return(Sum)

Interface and Implementation:

Interface: Parameters to be passed

: Value to returned
: What side effects are possible

Implementation: Procedure definition

Eg:

Procedure pro1 (a, b)

return( 0.5*(a+b))
End proc1

Procedure pro2 ( a, b)
c=a+b
c = 0.5*c
return(c)
End proc2
Truth Tables:

(i) AND Table

A B A AND B
True True True
True False False
False True False
False False False

(ii) OR Table

A B A OR B
True True True
True False True
False True True
False False False