Computer Science 1001

Lecture 4

Lecture Outline

• Flow control: selection

– CS1001 Lecture 4 –
 Control Logic

• So far we have seen programs with statements

executed sequentially from top to bottom.

• However, many algorithms will require:

– control over the order in which statements are
executed;
– control over which of a group of statements is to
be executed; or
– control over whether certain statements are
executed at all.

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 1
 What happens if a negative value is
entered?
## Calculate the circumference of a circle from its radius
## Step 1: Ask for the radius
## Step 2: Apply the circumference formula
## Step 3: Print out the results

from math import *

radius = input("Enter the radius: ")

radius = float(radius)

circumference = 2 * pi * radius

print("The circumference is",circumference)

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 2
 Unexpected input

• In the above example, we would like to check the

value that the user enters.

• If the radius is non-negative then we can go ahead

and calculate the circumference. That is,

if radius >= 0 then circumference = 2 * pi * r

• This can be illustrated in a flowchart as:

False
radius >= 0?

True

circumference = 2*pi*r
print("The circumference...

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 3
 Conditional control flow

• In python this can be written as:

if radius >= 0:
circumference = 2 * pi * radius
print("The circumference is",circumference)

• The if statement is a compound statement that

has a header (the if line) and a statement block.

• The statement block contains statements that are

to be executed if the condition in the header is true.

• Note that indentation is required within the

statement block.

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 4
 Logical/Boolean expressions

• A logical expression is an expression that evaluates

to a Boolean value (True or False).

• To write logical expressions we often require

relational operators. For example, the following
operators are available in Python:
Operator Name Example Result
< less than 8<0 False
<= less than or -1<=2 True
equal to
> greater than 7>9 False
>= greater than or 6>=6 True
equal to
== equal to 3==-3 False
!= not equal to ‘hi’!=‘bye’ True

• Note that the “equal to” operator has two equal

signs. A single equal sign is for assignment.

• Relational operators can also be used on strings.

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 5
 If statements

• An if statement can be used if a given sequence of

statements is to be executed or bypassed depending
on the result of a logical expression. In general we
have:

if boolean-expression:
statement(s)-if-expression-is-true

• An if statement can be illustrated as:

Boolean False
expression

True

Statement(s)

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 6
 If-else statements
• If the condition in an if statement (radius>=0 for
example) is False then the statements within the
if are not executed, and execution continues from
the next statement outside of the if (not indented).

• In the case where we wish to execute a group

of statements under one condition, but a different
group of statements otherwise then the if-else
statement can be used:
if boolean-expression:
statement(s)-for-the-true-case
else:
statement(s)-for-the-false-case

True False
Boolean
expression

Statement(s) Statement(s)
for true case for false case

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 7
 If-else statements

• For the circle circumference case we could use an

if-else statement as follows:

## Calculate the circumference of a circle from its radius

## Step 1: Ask for the radius
## Step 2: Apply the circumference formula
## Step 3: Print out the results

from math import *

radius = input("Enter the radius: ")

radius = float(radius)

if radius >= 0:
circumference = 2 * pi * radius
print("The circumference is",circumference)
else:
print("Negative input")

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 8
 Example: subtraction

• Suppose we would like to write a Python program

to allow a first-grader to practice subtraction.

• To begin, we could use the following algorithm:

1. Generate two single-digit integers (num1 and
num2).
2. If num1 < num2 then swap num1 with num2.
3. Ask the student to answer the question
"What is num1-num2?.
4. Check the student’s answer and inform them
whether it was correct, and if it was incorrect,
display the correct answer.

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 9
 The random module

• To generate the two integers, we can make use of a

function in the random module.

• The function randint(a,b) returns a random

integer n such that a <= n <= b.

• The random module also contains a function called

random() that returns a random floating point
number in the range [0.0, 1.0).

• For a list of functions available in the

random module see https://docs.python.org/
3/library/random.html#module-random.

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 10
 Example: subtraction
# Generate two single-digit integers num1 and num2
# If num1 < num2, swap num1 with num2
# Ask the student to answer ’What is num1 - num2?
# Check the student’s answer and display whether the answer is correct

from random import *

# generate two random integers

num1 = randint(0,9)
num2 = randint(0,9)

# swap the numbers if necessary

if num1 < num2:
temp = num1
num1 = num2
num2 = temp

answer = int(input("What is " + str(num1) + " - " + str(num2) + "?"))

result = num1 - num2

if answer == result :
print("Correct!", num1, "-", num2, "=", answer)
else:
print("Incorrect", num1, "-", num2, "is not", answer,
"it is", result)

Sample output:
What is 9 - 7?2
Correct! 9 - 7 = 2

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 11
What is 5 - 4?2
Incorrect 5 - 4 is not 2 it is 1

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 12
 Logical operators
• Logical expressions can be combined with the use
of logical operators not, and, and or.
Operator Example Result
and (2<5) and (2>7) False
or (2<5) or (2>7) True
not not(2==5) True

• The following truth tables illustrate the behaviour

of these operators.

A B A and B A B A or B
T T T T T T
T F F T F T

F T F F T T
F F F F F F

A not A
T F
F T

– CS1001 Lecture 4 – 13