Computing:Introduction

Computing: IntroductiontotoPython
Python
Lesson Three :
Lesson three
 Learning Objective
• To use a textual programming language to solve a variety of
computational problems.

Success Criteria
• To understand why programming languages use data types.
• To use type casting in Python to enable numerical inputs.
• To understand the importance of annotating code.
 Quick Quiz
1) What is the name of the programming language we’ve been learning?
A. Prolog B. Python C. Piranha D. Pascal

2) If we typed this code into Python: print(6 + 3 * 7),

what output would we see on screen?
A. 63 B. 637 C. 16 D. 27

3) The two windows in Python are called:

A. The Interactive mode and Script mode windows.
B. The Left mode and Right mode windows.
C. The Instant mode and Slow mode windows.
D. The Open mode and Close mode windows.
 Data Disaster
• Have you heard of
The Millennium Bug?
• In the year 1999, many
people believed that
computer systems
everywhere would crash,
bringing worldwide
disaster and chaos.
• The reason they thought
this was very simple…

Photo courtesy of paal, via Flickr

 Data Disaster
• Lots of computer systems only used two
digits to store the current year.
• For example, if the year was 1997, this
would be stored as 97.
• In 1999, the year would be stored as 99.
• What would happen on the 1st of
January in the year 2000?
• Answer: this would be stored as 00.
Click to see what happened…
• Many people feared that dates and

9
0
records stored on computers would be
confused. How would computers know
which century it was?
1900? 2000? 3000?
 Data Disaster
• So what actually happened on 1st January 2000?
Did the Millennium Bug bring the world to a standstill?
• Thankfully not. However, some
computer systems and displays got the
dates mixed up, displaying the year
1900 instead of 2000.
• For us today, it is a useful reminder of
how computers store information (data).
• The way that a computer processes
information depends on the type of
information. We call this the data type.
 Data Types
Think back to last lesson when we learned about variables.

We can think of variables as like boxes. Each box has a

label, and we can store information (data) in each box.
This information can vary during the running of a program.
The boxes are emptied of data when the program ends.

When we store information

>>> name = input(“What is your name?”) (data) in a Python program,
What is your name? Monty we need to know the data
>>>
“Monty”
type of the information.

name
 Data Types
Python has four data types:
• String (text or alphanumeric information);
• Integer (a whole number, a number which is not a fraction);
• Float (a number which can be a fraction);
• Boolean (can only be one of two values, True or False).

“y” 4 23.6 Fals

7 8 e
String Integ Float Boole
e r a
n
 Data Type Derby
Which data type is this value?

Float 3.14
2

String Integ Float Boole

e r a
n
 Data Type Derby
Which data type is this value?

String Monty

String Integ Float Boole

e r a
n
 Data Type Derby
Which data type is this value?

Boolean True

String Integ Float Boole

e r a
n
 Data Type Derby
Which data type is this value?

Integer 4
7

String Integ Float Boole

e r a
n
 Data Type Derby
Which data type is this value?

String “1234
”
Did this answer surprise you?
Any data enclosed within
“quotes” is always a string!

String Integ Float Boole

e r a
n
 Data Type Derby
Which data type is this value?

Integer -
23

String Integ Float Boole

e r a
n
 Type Casting
Do you remember the input command we used in last lesson?

• input works fine with strings, but we have to take care with numbers.
• Try entering this Python code into the script mode window, then save
and run your program:
 Type Casting
According to our program, 6 + 7 = 67!
What’s gone wrong?
Python thinks that any information we
enter using input is always a string.
In other words, “6” + “7” = “67”.
Instead of adding the numbers together, the “6” and “7” are just joined
together. (The technical term for adding strings is concatenation.)
Try your program again with different numbers just to make sure.
To fix this problem, and enable us to add our numbers together, we simply
make use of the type casting method int().
Let’s see this in action …
 Type Casting
Change your program by including int as shown here.
Be careful to add an extra bracket at the end of the first two lines:

Running our program now gives us the correct answers.

 Snakes Alive!
• The Python programming language first appeared in February 1991.
• In a sense, we could say that this was when Python was born.
• Have you ever wondered how many days you’ve been alive?
Or hours, minutes or seconds?

Snakes Alive Quick Challenge:

In script mode write a short program that will
input your age in years, and print the number of
seconds you’ve been alive for.

Start your code like this …

Quick now, seconds

are ticking away!
 Snakes Alive!
Possible solution – easy version:

There are 365 days in a year,

24 hours in a day,
60 minutes in every hour,
and 60 seconds in every minute.
Therefore to find how many
seconds you’ve been alive,
multiply your age by
365 x 24 x 60 x 60
 Snakes Alive!
Possible solution – better version:
 Let’s Bring It All Together
Variables
We can think of variables as like boxes. Each box has a label, and we can
store information (data) in each box. This information can vary during the
running of a program. The boxes are emptied of data when the program
ends.
Data Types
Python has four data types:
•String (text or alphanumeric information);
•Integer (a whole number, a number which is not a fraction);
•Float (a number which can be a fraction);
•Boolean (can only be one of two values, True or False).

Key Terms
Adding strings together is
called concatenation
(con - cat - en - ay - shun).
 Rate Your Progress
Red Light: you have understood some of the objective
and you will think about it some more later on, perhaps
asking a friend or teacher for help.

Amber Light: you have understood most of the objective

and you are happy with your progress.

Green Light: you feel fully confident with this objective and
you understand it well.

Success Criteria:
• To know why programming languages use data types.
• To use type casting in Python to enable numerical inputs.
• To understand the importance of annotating code.
 Nailing It Down
We have learned a lot today about data types and annotation in Python.

There are many other programming languages, some are easier to learn
than others.

You can find out about different languages at this interesting website:
http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Rosetta_Code
The purpose of this website is to present solutions to the same problems
for lots of different programming languages.

See if you can find out how the Fibonacci

Sequence is coded in Python and other languages:
http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Fibonacci_sequence
Use the int , float for the following:

⮚Read & store numeric value 1 in the val1 variable

⮚Read & store numeric value 2 in the val1 variable

⮚ print the result of adding them.

Codes examples :
Codes examples :