Introduction to Computer Programming

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Decision Structures

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Boolean Logic

History

George Boole
English Mathematician, Philosopher and
Logician in the 1800’s
Proposed that logical propositions can be
expressed by algebraic equations (AND, OR,
NOT, . . . )

This idea, now called Boolean Logic, is the

basis of Computer Science!

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Boolean Logic

In Python. . .
New Data type: Boolean value (bool type)

True or False
just like other values, can be assigned to variables
comparison operators return Boolean values
can be combined into expressions using logical operators

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Comparison Operators

Comparison operators
There are 6 comparison operators:

a == b is a equal to b ?
a != b is a different than b ?
a > b is a greater than b ?
a < b is a less than b ?
a >= b is a greater than or equal to b ?
a <= b is a less than or equal to b ?

These operators always return a bool ( True or False )

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Comparison Operators
Comparison operators and different Types
Example:
>>> 8 >= "four"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#52>", line 1, in <module>
8 >= "four"
TypeError: '>=' not supported between instances of
'int' and 'str'

Numeric types can be compared (mixed numeric types int and

float are allowed)
Comparing a string with a numeric value will result in:
== will always return False
!= will always return True
< , <= , >= and > will raise a Type Error
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Comparison Operators

Examples

8 == 4.0
'one' == 'two'
5.1 >= 4.2
5 > 6
8.00001 != 8
"abc" == "abcd"
1 < int("12")
'a' < 'b'
'ab' < 'ac'
'Word' < 'word'

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Membership

Membership
An easy way to tell if an element is in a sequence

in and not in are operators that each take two arguments. They will
test the membership of an element in a collection/sequence.
A in B
returns True if A is an element in B
False otherwise
A not in B
returns True if A is not an element in B
False otherwise

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Membership

in / not in examples

>>> 'c' in "cat" >>> 'b' not in "cat"

True True
>>> 'r' in "cat" >>> 'a' not in "cat"
False False
>>> 'ca' in "cat" >>> 'at' not in "cat"
True False

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Logical Operators

What are Logical Operators?

Logical Operators are operators that combine Boolean values
these operators always return another Boolean value
these operators can be use to create complex Boolean expressions

3 Logical Operators: not , or and and

not a only one operand (to the right)

returns True if a is False
a or b two operands (one on each side)
returns True if at least one operand is True
a and b two operands (one on each side)
returns True if both operands are True

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Logical Operators
Examples

>>> True and False >>> not True

False False

>>> True and True >>> not not True

True True

>>> True or False >>> not (True or False)

True False

>>> (not True) and (False or True)

False

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Logical Operators
How to know every combination?
Logical Operators can be described through Truth Tables

Truth Table is a concise table of Boolean values that describes the

semantics of an operator

it will go through each possible combination of operands and

specify the resulting Boolean value
each row represents a combination of operands
each column represents a operand. . .
. . . with the exception of the last column which represents the
resulting value

For simplicity, we will write Truth Tables with letters:

T for True
F for False
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Logical Operators
Truth Table - NOT, OR and AND
a b a or b a b a and b
a not a F F F F F F
F T F T T F T F
T F T F T T F F
T T T T T T

Logical Operators precedence

If one does not use parentheses, Logical Operators are evaluated with the
following order of priority:
not
and
or

Example:
not a or not b and c ⇐⇒ (not a) or ((not b) and c)
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Combining Operators

Chaining Operators
Numeric/String operators can be combined with Comparison and
Logical operators to create complex Boolean expressions.

Example:
100 > 1 and -10 ** 2 <= -100 or "foo" == "foo" + "bar"

what order will the operations be evaluated in?

there is an overall order of operations that exists: a summary can be
found in the official Python 3 documentation (←click here)
what does the expression above evaluate to?

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Combining Operators
Summary of Operator Precedence
List of operators from highest to lowest precedence:
() parentheses are evaluated first
** exponentiation
+ and - unary + or - (sign)
* , / , // and % multiplication, division(s) and modulo
+ and - addition and substraction
== , != , < , <= , >= and > comparison operators
not
and
or

Note
Even if your expression follows operator precedence, it is good practice to
use
Introduction parentheses,
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Combining Operators

Exercises
Crazy one
True and True or False and True and 10 * 10 + 10 == 110 and not False

Another one
not (8 != 8) or not True

Another one
"hello" == "world" or 5 + 5 > 8 and 4 * 3 < 16 and 28 != 0

Final one
((True or False) and not True) and not (False and False)

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Combining Operators

Exercises
Crazy one
True and True or False and True and 10 * 10 + 10 == 110 and not False
⇒ True

Another one
not (8 != 8) or not True
⇒ True

Another one
"hello" == "world" or 5 + 5 > 8 and 4 * 3 < 16 and 28 != 0
⇒ True

Final one
((True or False) and not True) and not (False and False)
⇒ False

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Combining Operators

Short Circuit Evaluation

or and and operators have particular properties

Let’s suppose unknown is a boolean variable. . .

. . . but its value is unknown
True or unknown always returns True
False and unknown always returns False
. . . whatever the value of unknown ( True / False )

Crazy example again

True and True or False and True and 10 * 10 + 10 == 110 and not False

Can be evaluated quickly with Short Circuit Evaluation

True and True or ... always returns True
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if Statement
Decision structure
Until now, our programs were lists of statements executed in the order
that they appear.

This sequence structure does not allow to handle every type of task.
Examples:
a program that verifies if the user has input a number
a program that checks if the player beats high score
...
This kind of program needs decision structure

Decision structure
if Statement:
allows for conditional execution of code
allows a program to have more than one path of execution
causes one or more statements to execute only when a Boolean
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if Statement

Simple decision structure

Score higher True

Start
than HighScore
False Ask user’s
name

Update
HighScore

Display
Stop HighScore
table

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if Statement
if Statement Syntax
starts with keyword if
. . . followed by a boolean expression
which ends with a colon :
the code that is to be executed if the condition is met is placed in
an indented code block
once the indentation goes back one level, the body of the
if-statement ends

Example:
1 a = int(input('Type number 2:'))
2 if a == 2:
3 print("You typed")
4 print("number 2")
5 # now we're out of the if statement
6 print("outta here")
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if-else Statement

else condition
In previous structures, we are executing:
one block of statements if the condition is True
. . . nothing is executed if the condition is False

We can build a program with a dual alternative decision structure with a

if-else Statement:
one block of statements if the condition is True
another block of statements is executed if the condition is False

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if-else Statement

if-else flowchart
Score higher True
Start
than HighScore
False Ask user’s
name
Display
cheer-up
message Update
HighScore

Display
Stop HighScore
table

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if-else Statement
if-else Statement Syntax
After the body of an if-statement. . .
go back one level of indentation to mark that the previous code
block has ended
keyword else , immediately followed by a colon :
body - indented, body ends when indentation goes back one level
(this whole else clause is totally optional; it is not required)

Example:
1 a = int(input('Type number 2:'))
2 if a == 2:
3 print("You typed number 2")
4 else:
5 print("You did not type number 2")
6 # now we're out of the if-else statement
7 print("outta here")
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if-else Statement

Exercise
Write a program to ask the user for 2 numbers:
if they are equal, print a message They are the same
if they are different, print the sum and then the product

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if-else Statement

Exercise
Write a program to ask the user for 2 numbers:
if they are equal, print a message They are the same
if they are different, print the sum and then the product

Possible solution:
1 a = int(input('Enter 1st number: '))
2 b = int(input('Enter 2nd number: '))
3

4 if a==b: #numbers are equal

5 print('They are the same')
6 else: #numbers are different
7 print('The sum is ' + str(a+b))
8 print('The product is ' + str(a*b))
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if Statement

Chaining if-statements
Sometimes, the else condition is not enough. . .

Example:
Display a message telling that a number is whether Positive ,
Negative or Zero

A possible solution is to chain if-statements.

1 a = int(input('Enter a number: '))

2

3 if a>0:
4 print('Positive')
5 if a<0:
6 print('Negative')
7 if a==0:
8 print('Zero')
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if Statement
Flowchart
Ask for a
Start
number

True
number > 0
False
Positive

True
number < 0
False Negative

True
number == 0
False
Zero

Stop
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elif Statement

Nested if-else-statement
In the previous example:
if number > 0 returns True , is it necessary to check the next
conditions ( number < 0 and number == 0 )?
No, in this case only one path will be executed.

A possible solution is to nest several if-else-statements.

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elif Statement
Flowchart
Ask for a
Start
number

False
number > 0

True False
number < 0

True False
number == 0

True

Positive Negative Zero

Stop
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elif Statement

1 a = int(input('Enter a number: '))

2

3 if a>0:
4 print('Positive')
5 else:
6 if a<0:
7 print('Negative')
8 else:
9 if a==0:
10 print('Zero')
11

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elif Statement
Flowchart
Ask for a
Start
number

False
number > 0
True False
number < 0
True

Positive Negative Zero

Stop

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elif Statement

1 a = int(input('Enter a number: '))

2

3 if a>0:
4 print('Positive')
5 else:
6 if a<0:
7 print('Negative')
8 else:
9 print('Zero')
10

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elif Statement
elif Statement
Nesting if-else-statements can become rather complex and difficult
to read.

Python provides a special decision structure: if-elif-else statement

elif Statement Syntax

After the body of an if -statement. . .
go back one level of indentation to mark that the previous code
block has ended
keyword elif , immediately followed by another condition and a
colon :
body - indented, body ends when indentation goes back one level
as many elif -statements as needed. . .
can still use else -statement at the end if needed
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elif Statement

1 a = int(input('Enter a number: '))

2

3 if a>0: #positive?
4 print('Positive')
5 elif a<0: #negative?
6 print('Negative')
7 else: #neither positive nor negative -> zero
8 print('Zero')
9

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elif Statement

elif Statement
In a if-elif-else statement:
Even if several conditions ( if or elif ) are True , only the first
corresponding body will be executed
→ order matters!
If none of the conditions is True , the else corresponding body
will be executed (if present)

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elif Statement

Exercise
Write a program to ask the user for the values of two dice rolls

You have to print the name of the roll in Craps (link)

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