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CUATL

Learn about cautl

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362 views

CUATL

Learn about cautl

Uploaded by

Muhammad Salman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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‭The Chester University Aptitude Test Language (CUATL)‬

‭ or your aptitude test you’ll be asked to use a simple, new programming language called‬
F
‭CUATL, which contains only a few features compared to more commonly used languages‬
‭such as C++ or Python. This document contains everything you need to know about the‬
‭language before you take your test. You can check your knowledge by attempting the‬
‭sample questions at the end.‬

‭Datatypes‬

‭‬ C
● ‭ UATL has only two datatypes‬‭.‬‭These are‬‭integers‬‭and‬‭lists‬‭of integers.‬
‭●‬ ‭Integers are always declared with a single letter such as‬‭x‭,‬‬‭y‭,‬‬‭z‬‭,‬‭a‭,‬‬‭b‬‭,‬‭c‬‭etc.‬
‭●‬ ‭Lists are always declared by adding‬‭s‬‭to a variable‬‭name, such as‬‭xs‬‭,‬‭ys‬‭etc.‬
‭○‬ ‭We can define a list with the - operator, so we might create a list called‬‭xs‬
‭with the literal value 1-2-3-4, for example‬
‭○‬ ‭Values can be added to the end of a list with the <- operator, e.g.‬
‭■‬ ‭xs <- 5‬
‭■‬ ‭so 1-2-3 <- 4 is 1-2-3-4‬
‭○‬ ‭We index lists using integers, eg xs1, xs2, xsi‬
‭○‬ ‭Indexes begin at 1, not zero‬
‭■‬ ‭So if xs is 3-4-5 then xs1 is 3 and xs2 is 4‬

‭Operators‬

‭Some of the operators in CUATL are different from most languages.‬

‭●‬ F ‭ or arithmetic, we use‬‭pl‬‭,‬‭mi‬‭,‬‭mu‬‭and‬‭dv‬‭instead of‬‭+, -, * and / for addition,‬


‭subtraction, multiplication and division respectively.‬
‭●‬ ‭We can also use‬‭rm‬‭for the modulus operator (% in‬‭most languages)‬
‭●‬ ‭Values are assigned using an operator which looks like equals but isn’t. It is typed‬
‭like this ::: (exactly three colons).‬
‭●‬ ‭We can use the relational operators <, > and == as in most languages, and they‬
‭return the value 1 or 0 (as there are no booleans in CUATL).‬

‭Control Structures‬

‭ here is only one kind of loop, which is a for-each style loop iterating over a list. It uses the‬
T
‭syntax‬‭ over(xs)‬‭and will iterate over each value in‬‭the xs list, referring to each element as x‬
‭in this case. There are no do or while loops. Scope is defined by the braces { and } as in C++‬
‭and Java. A simple example might be:‬

‭ver(xs)‬
o
{‬
‭
x ::: 0‬
‭
}‬
‭

‭This would set every element of xs to 0‬


‭There is no if or switch statement in CUATL but we can use conditionals in the following form‬

x ::: y < 5 ? y , 0‬
‭

‭This will assign x the value of y if y is less than 5 and 0 otherwise.‬

‭Functions‬

I‭n addition, we may define functions. Function names always begin with the word ‘do’, apart‬
‭from ‘main’, which serves its usual purpose. They may accept parameters in round brackets‬
‭and return an integer or nothing at all. We return a value by putting it in quotes. The following‬
‭example returns the value t, which is the sum of the elements of the list xs.‬

‭ oSum(xs)‬
d
‭{‬
‭t ::: 0‬
‭over(xs)‬
‭{‬
‭t ::: t pl x‬
‭}‬
‭“t”‬
‭}‬

‭As a final note, there are no semicolons in CUATL. A statement must occupy a single line.‬

‭Practice Questions‬

‭ ave a go at these questions to make sure you’ve understood how the language works‬
H
‭before you take your test. The answers are at the end of the document.‬

‭Question 1:‬

‭What is the value assigned to y by the following‬‭code?‬

‭ain()‬
m
{‬
‭
x ::: 10‬
‭
x ::: 11‬
‭
y ::: x rm 3‬
‭
}‬
‭

‭Question 2:‬

‭Give the value assigned to q by the following code‬

main()‬
‭
{‬
‭
‭s ::: 1-11-5-2-4‬
x
b ::: xs2 mi xs3‬
‭
q ::: b dv xs4‬
‭
}‬
‭

‭Question 3:‬

‭What is the value assigned to z in the following code?‬

‭ain()‬
m
{‬
‭
xs ::: 1-1-1-1‬
‭
over(xs)‬
‭
{‬
‭
x ::: x pl 2‬
‭
}‬
‭
z ::: xs4 mu 2‬
‭
}‬
‭

‭Question 4:‬

‭Consider the following code‬

‭oMysteryThings(xs, n)‬
d
{‬
‭
c ::: 0‬
‭
t ::: 0‬
‭
over(xs)‬
‭
{‬
‭
t ::: c < n ? t pl x , t‬
‭
c ::: c pl 1‬
‭
}‬
‭
“t”‬
‭
}‬
‭

‭ain()‬
m
{‬
‭
ys ::: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-23-65‬
‭
f ::: doMysteryThings(ys,4)‬
‭
}‬
‭

‭What is the value assigned to f?‬


‭Answers:‬

‭1.‬ y ‭ is 2. x is overwritten in the second line to the value 11. The modulus operation‬
‭gives the remainder after dividing 11 by 3, which is 2.‬
‭2.‬ ‭q is 3. The value of b is assigned to 6. This is then divided by 2.‬
‭3.‬ ‭z is 6. All elements are 3 once the loop has completed. The last element is then‬
‭multiplied by 2 to obtain z.‬
‭4.‬ ‭f is 10. The function stops adding elements to the total after 4 iterations.‬

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