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OCR GCSE Computer Science Your notes

Programming Fundamentals & Data Types

Contents
Fundamental Programming Concepts
Programming Constructs
Common Arithmetic Operators
Common Boolean Operators
Data Types

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Fundamental Programming Concepts

Your notes
Taking an algorithm and turning it into code, in any language, requires an understanding of several basic
programming concepts such as:
Variables
Constants
Assignment
Operators
Inputs
Outputs

Variables, Constants & Assignments

What is a variable?
A variable is a named memory location that holds data that during the execution of a program, the
data can change
Variables can store a variety of different types of data such as numbers, text or true/false values
To store data in a variable, the process of assignment is used

What is a constant?
A constant is fixed data that during the execution of a program cannot change
A constant can store a variety of different types of data, similar to variables
Pi is an example of a mathematical fixed value that would typically be stored as a constant

What is assignment?
Assignment is the process of storing data in a variable or constant under a descriptive name
Assignment is performed using the '=' symbol

Assigning variables & constants

Concept OCR exam reference Python

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Variables x=3 x=3

name = "Save My Exams" name = "Save My Exams" Your notes

Constants const vat = 0.2 VAT = 0.2

const pi = 3.142 PI = 3.142

Operators, Inputs & Outputs

What is an operator?
An operator is a symbol used to instruct a computer to perform a specific operation on one or more
values
Examples of common operators include:
Arithmetic
Comparison
Boolean (AND, OR and NOT)

Arithmetic
Operator OCR exam reference Python

Addition + +

Subtraction - -

Multiplication * *

Division / /

Modulus (remainder after division) MOD %

Quotient (whole number division) DIV //

Exponentiation (to the power of) ^ **

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Comparison
Operator OCR exam reference Python Your notes

Equal to == ==

Not equal to != !=

Less than < <

Less than or equal to <= <=

Greater than > >

Greater than or equal to >= >=

Examples
Operator OCR exam reference Python

Addition sum = 2 + 2 # 4 sum = 2 + 2 # 4

Multiplication sum = 3 * 4 # 12 sum = 3 * 4 # 12

Modulus sum = 10 MOD 3 # 1 sum = 10 % 3 # 1

Quotient sum = 10 DIV 3 # 3 sum = 10 // 3 # 3

Exponentiation sum = 2 ^ 2 # 4 sum = 2 ** 2 # 4

Equal to if 3 == 3 then # True if 3 == 3: # True

Not equal to if 5 != 6 then # True if 5 != 6: # True

Greater than or equal to if 10 >= 2 then # True if 10 >= 2: # True

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AND number = 10 number = 10

if number > 0 and < 20 then if number > 0 and number < 20:
Your notes
# True # True

What is an input?
An input is a value that is read from an input device and then processed by a computer program
Typical input devices include:
Keyboards - Typing text
Mice - Selecting item, clicking buttons
Sensors - Reading data from sensors such as temperature, pressure or motion
Microphone - Capturing audio, speech recognition
Without inputs, programs are not useful as they can't interact with the outside world and always
produce the same result

What is an output?
An output is a value sent to an output device from a computer program
Typical output devices include:
Monitor - Displaying text, images or graphics
Speaker - Playing audio
Printer - Creating physical copies of documents or images

Area of a rectangle program

OCR exam reference

# Get the length and width from the user

length = input("Enter the length of the rectangle: ")

width = input("Enter the width of the rectangle: ")

# Calculate the area

area = length * width

# Check if the area is greater than 100

if area > 100 then

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# Print the results

print("The area of the rectangle is", area)
Your notes
endif

Python

# Get the length and width from the user

length = int(input("Enter the length of the rectangle: "))

width = int(input("Enter the width of the rectangle: "))

# Calculate the area

area = length * width

# Check if the area is greater than 100

if area > 100:

# Print the results

print("The area of the rectangle is", area)

Worked Example
A cinema calculates ticket prices based on age category
Adult = £13.00
Child = £7.50
The program asks the user to enter their age and calculates the cost of their ticket
A simple algorithm is used
adult = 13.00

child = 7.50

age = input("What is your age: ")

if age > 18 then

total_cost = adult

else

toal_cost = child

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end if

print(total_cost) Your notes

The cinema decides to add a discount of 25% to customers who come to the cinema on 'Sunday
evening'
Identify all the additional inputs that will be required for this change to the algorithm [2]
How to answer this question
What new information is needed?
Answer
day
time

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Programming Constructs
Your notes
What is a Programming Construct?
A programming construct determines the order in which lines of code are executed
They control logic and behaviour of code
There are three core programming constructs:
Sequence
Selection
Iteration

Sequence
What is sequence?
Sequence refers to lines of code which are run one line at a time
The lines of code are run in the order that they written from the first line of code to the last line of code
Sequence is crucial to the flow of a program, any instructions out of sequence can lead to
unexpected behaviour or errors

Example
A simple program to ask a user to input two numbers, number two is subtracted from number one and
the result is outputted

Line OCR reference language/Python

01 print("Enter the first number")

02 Num1 = input()

03 print("Enter the second number")

04 Num2 = input()

05 Result = Num1 - Num2

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06 print(Result)

Your notes
A simple swap of line 01 and line 02 would lead to an unexpected behaviour, the user would be
prompted to input information without knowing what they should enter

Selection
What is selection?
Selection is when the flow of a program is changed, depending on a set of conditions
The outcome of this condition will then determine which lines or block of code is run next
Selection is used for validation, calculation and making sense of a user's choices
There are two ways to write selection statements:
if... then... else... statements - this is when you test conditions sequentially
case select or switch... statements - this is when you test an expression against multiple possible
constant values (known as cases)

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Example
Concept OCR exam reference Python Your notes

IF-THEN-ELSE if answer == "Yes" then if answer == "Yes":

print("Correct") print("Correct")

elseif answer == "No" then elif answer == "No":

print("Wrong") print("Wrong")

else else:

print("Error") print("Error")

endif

CASE SELECT or SWITCH switch day : match day:

case "Sat": case "Sat":

print("Saturday") print("Saturday")

case "Sun": case "Sun":

print("Sunday") print("Sunday")

default: case _:

print("Weekday") print("Weekday")

endswitch

If vs select case
Select case can mean less code but it only useful when comparing multiple values of the same
variable
If statements can be more flexible and are generally used more in languages such as Python

Iteration
What is iteration?
Iteration is repeating a line or a block of code using a loop
Iteration can be:

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count controlled - this is when the code is repeated a fixed number of times (e.g. using a for loop)

Your notes

condition controlled - this is when the code is repeated until a condition is met (e.g. using a while loop
or a do while loop)

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Your notes

Examples
Iteration OCR exam reference Python

FOR loop for x = 0 to 9 for x in range(10):

(Count controlled) print("Hello") print("Hello")

next x

This will print the word "Hello" 10 times (0-9 inclusive)

for x = 2 to 10 step 2 for x in range(2,12,2):

print(x) print(x)

next x # Python range function excludes end value

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This will print the even numbers from 2 to 10 inclusive

Your notes
for x = 10 to 0 step -1 for x in range(10,-1,-1):

print(x) print(x)

next x # Python range function excludes end value

This will print the numbers from 10 to 0 inclusive

WHILE loop while colour != "Red" while colour != "Red":

(Condition colour = input("New colour") colour = input("New colour")

controlled)
endwhile

This will loop until the user inputs the colour "Red". Check condition is carried
out before entering loop

DO WHILE loop do # Not used in Python

(Condition colour = input("New colour")

controlled)
until answer == "Red"

This will loop until the user inputs the colour "Red". Loop iterates once before a
check is carried out

How to identify programming constructs

You can identify which programming constructs are used by looking at certain keywords
The keywords if, elseif, else, endif, switch, case indicate that the construct is selection
The keywords for, while, do indicate that the construct is iteration
If none of these keywords are used, this is a good indication that the construct is sequence

Worked Example

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Tick (✓) one box in each row to identify whether each programming construct has or has not been
used in the program [3]
Your notes
total = 0

for i = 1 to 5

num = input("Enter a number")

total = total + num

next i

print(total)

How to answer this question

Always look for keywords first, if you find any then that construct must have been used
Sequence must always be used if the program works
Answer

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Common Arithmetic Operators

Your notes
Common Arithmetic Operators
To demonstrate the use of common arithmetic operators, three sample programs written in Python are
given below
Comments have been included to help understand how the arithmetic operators are being used
Arithmetic operators #1 - a simple program to calculate if a user entered number is odd or even
Arithmetic operators #2 - a simple program to calculate the area of a circle from a user inputted
radius
Arithmetic operators #3 - a simple program that generates 5 maths questions based on user
inputs and gives a score of how many were correctly answered at the end

Python code

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Arithmetic operators #1
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Get the user to input a number
user_input = int(input("Enter a number: "))

# if the remainder of the number divided by 2 is 0, the number is even

if user_input % 2 == 0:
print("The number is even.")
else:
print("The number is odd.")

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Arithmetic operators #2
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Get the radius from the user
radius = float(input("Enter the radius of the circle: "))

# Calculate the area of the circle

area = 3.14159 * radius ** 2

# Display the calculated area

print("The area of the circle with radius",radius,"is",area)

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Arithmetic operators #3
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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# Set the score to 0

score = 0
Your notes
# Loop 5 times
for x in range(5):
num1 = int(input("Enter the first number: "))
operator = input("Enter the operator (+, -, *): ")
num2 = int(input("Enter the second number: "))
user_answer = int(input("What is "+str(num1)+str(operator)+str(num2)+"? "))

# Check the answer and update the score

if operator == '+':
correct_answer = num1 + num2
elif operator == '-':
correct_answer = num1 - num2
elif operator == '*':
correct_answer = num1 * num2

if user_answer == correct_answer:
score = score + 1
else:
print("Sorry that's incorrect.")

print("Your score is:", score)

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Common Boolean Operators

Your notes
Common Boolean Operators
To demonstrate the use of common Boolean operators, three sample programs written in Python are
given below
Comments have been included to help understand how the Boolean operators are being used
Common Boolean operators #1 - a simple program that assigns Boolean values to two variables
and outputs basic comparisons
Common Boolean operators #2 - a simple program to output a grade based on a users score
Common Boolean operators #3 - a simple program reads a text files and searches for an inputted
score

Python code

# -----------------------------------------------------------
# Common Boolean operators #1
# -----------------------------------------------------------
# Assign a Boolean value to a and b
a = True
b = False

# print the result of a and b

print("a and b:", a and b)
# print the result of a or b
print("a or b:", a or b)
# print the result of not a
print("not a:", not a)

# -----------------------------------------------------------
# Common Boolean operators #2
# -----------------------------------------------------------

# Take input for the score from the user

score = int(input("Enter the score: "))

# Compare the score and output the corresponding grade

if score >= 90 and score <= 100:
print("Grade: A")
elif score >= 80 and score < 90:
print("Grade: B")

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elif score >= 70 and score < 80:

print("Grade: C")
elif score < 70: Your notes
print("Fail")

# -----------------------------------------------------------
# Common Boolean operators #3
# -----------------------------------------------------------
# Open the file for reading
file = open("scores.txt","r")
# Set flags to false
end_of_file = False
found = False
score = input("Enter a score: ")
# While it's not the end of the file and the score has not been found
while not end_of_file and not found:
# read the line
scores = file.readline().strip()
# if the line equals the score
if score == str(scores):
found = True
print("Score found")
# if the line is empty
if scores == "":
end_of_file = True
print("Score not found")
file.close()

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Data Types
Your notes
Primitive Data Types
What is a data type?
A data type is a classification of data into groups according to the kind of data they represent
Computers use different data types to represent different types of data in a program
The basic data types include:

Data type Used for Example

Integer Whole numbers 10, -5, 0

Real Numbers with a fractional part 3.14, -2.5, 0.0

Character Single character 'a', 'B', '6', '£'

String Sequence of characters "Hello world", "ABC", "@#!%"

Boolean True or false values True, False

It is important to choose the correct data type for a given situation to ensure accuracy and efficiency
in the program
Data types can be changed within a program, this is called casting

What is casting?
Casting is when you convert one data type to another data type

Example
The following Python program is used to capture a users age to determine if they are old enough to
vote

Line Python code

01 age = input("Enter age")

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02 if age >= 18:

Your notes
03 print("Old enough to vote")

04 else:

05 print("Too young to vote")

In this example, on line 01, no specific data type is requested

By default the data type is stored as 'string'
On line 02, a run-time error would occur because age is stored as a string and is being compared to an
integer value in the selection statement
Casting the age from a string to an integer would solve the error

Line Python code

01 age = input("Enter age")

02 if int(age) >= 18:

03 print("Old enough to vote")

04 else:

05 print("Too young to vote")

In the corrected code, casting is highlighted in green

Casting between data types

Conversion Example Output

From Integer to Real int_value = 5 5.0

real_value = float(int_value)

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From Real to Integer real_value = 5.7 5

int_value = int(real_value) Your notes

From String to Integer str_value = "10" 10

int_value = int(str_value)

From Integer to String int_value = 5 "5"

str_value = str(int_value)

From Boolean to String bool_val = True "True"

str_val = str(bool_val)

From String to Boolean str_value = "True" True

bool_val = bool(str_value)

Worked Example
Customers booking a holiday can choose between half board or all inclusive and a hotel star rating
between 1 and 5
A typical booking record is shown in the table:

firstName Jacob

lastName Franks

boardType All inclusive

starRating 5

bookingComplete True

State the most appropriate data type for the following fields [2]:

boardType

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starRating
Your notes
Give the name of one field that could be stored as a Boolean data type [1]
Answer

boardType String

starRating Integer

bookingComplete

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