Computer Programming

Dr Khaleda Ali
[email protected]
 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
 To become familiar with the three kinds of control structures: sequence,
selection, and repetition
 To understand compound statements
 To learn how to compare numbers and characters
 To learn how to use the relational, equality, and logical operators to write
expressions that are true or false
 To learn how to write selection statements that choose between two
alternatives in a program using the if statement
 To learn how to implement decisions in algorithms using the if statement
 To understand how to select among more than two alternatives by nesting if
statements
 To learn how to use the switch statement as another technique for selecting
among multiple alternatives

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 Control Structures

 All programs can be written in terms of three control

structures (like building blocks)
 Sequence
 ‘Built-in’ to C
 Unless otherwise directed, one statement after the next is executed
 Selection (three types)
 Depending on a condition, select between one statement or
another
 If var1 is greater than 10, do this…, else do that…
 Repetition (three types)
 Depending on a condition, execute one or more statements
repeatedly
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Truth Values

 Be careful of the value returned/evaluated by a

relational operation.
 Since the values 0 and 1 are the returned values for
false and true respectively, we can have codes like
these:
int a = 12 + (5 >= 2); // 13 assigned to a
int b = (4 > 5) < (3 > 2) * 6; // 1 assigned to b
int c = ( (4 > 5) < (3 > 2) ) * 6; // 6 assigned to c
 You are certainly not encouraged to write such
convoluted codes!
Control Structures
 Three kinds of selections structures
 if (also called, ‘single-selection’)
 if condition is true
Perform action
 if condition is false, action is skipped, program continues
 if/else (also called, ‘double-selection’)
 if condition is true
Perform action
 else (if condition is false)
Perform a different action (this will be skipped if condition is true)
 switch (also called ‘multiple-selection’)
 Allows selection among many actions depending on the integral
value of a variable or expression
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 Conditions

 A condition can be specified by an operator between two (variable or

constant) values.
 Relational Operators
 Used to compare numbers to determine relative order
 Important for constructing the decision expression
Operators Meaning
< Less than
> Grater than
<= Less than or equal to
>= Greater than or equal to
== Equal to
!= Not equal to

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 Conditions
 Relational Operators Practice

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 Conditions
 Logical Operators
 we can form more complicated conditions or logical expressions.

Operators Meaning
&& And
|| Or
! Not

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 Conditions
 Logical AND operator && (double ampersand)
 The condition evaluates to TRUE if and only if BOTH expressions on either
side of && evaluate to TRUE Otherwise condition evaluates to FALSE
 Note operator precedence
 Beware of ‘short circuit evaluation’
 Make the condition most likely to be FALSE the left-most condition

Operand1 Orerand2 AND (&&)

nonzero (true) nonzero (true) 1 (true)
nonzero (true) 0 (false) 0 (false)
0 (false) nonzero (true) 0 (false)
0 (false) 0 (false) 0 (false)

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 Conditions
 Logical OR operator || (double vertical bar)
 The condition evaluates to TRUE if one or the other or both expressions on
either side of || evaluate to TRUE
 Note operator precedence
 Otherwise condition evaluates to FALSE
 Beware of ‘short circuit evaluation’
 Make the condition most likely to be TRUE the left-most condition

Operand1 Orerand2 OR (||)

nonzero (true) nonzero (true) 1 (true)
nonzero (true) 0 (false) 1 (true)
0 (false) nonzero (true) 1 (true)
0 (false) 0 (false) 0 (false)

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 Conditions
 Logical NOT operator ! (exclamatory sign)
 The condition evaluates to TRUE if expressions after ! evaluate to FALSE
 Note operator precedence (An operator’s precedence determines its order of
evaluation)
 Otherwise condition evaluates to FALSE

Operand NOT (!)

0 (false) 1 (true)
nonzero (true) 0 (false)

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Example

Slide 12
Short circuit evaluation
 C evaluates only part of the expression. An expression of the form a || b
must be true if a is true. Consequently, C stops evaluating the expression
when it determines that the value of !flag is 1 (true). This technique of
stopping evaluation of a logical expression as soon as its value can be
determined is called short-circuit evaluation .
 We can use short-circuit evaluation to prevent potential run-time errors.

Slide 13
 Conditions

 Comparing characters
 We can also compare characters in C using the relational and equality operators.

Expression Value
‘9’ > ‘0’ 1 (true)
‘a’ < ‘e’ 1 (true)
‘B’ <= ‘A’ 0 (false)
‘a’ <= ch && ch <= 1 (true) if ch is a lowercase
‘z’ letter

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 The if Statement

 Allows statements to be conditionally executed or skipped over

 Models the way we mentally evaluate situations:
 "If it is raining, take an umbrella."
 "If it is cold outside, wear a coat."
 if Statement (One Alternative)
 if ( condition ) product = 10, x = 2;
statement; if (x != 0)
product = product * x;

if (score > 90)

grade = 'A';
if (score > 90)
grade = 'A';
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 The if Statement

if (12 < 12)

 if Statement (Two Alternatives) printf("less");
 if ( condition ) else
statement T; var1printf("not
= 25.12; less");
else var2 = 15.00;
statement F; if (var1 <= var2)
 If the condition is true, printf("less or equal");
then statement T is executed else
and statement F is skipped. printf("greater than");
 If the condition is false, scanf(“%d”, &num);
then statement T is skipped if (num % 2 == 0)
and statement F is executed. printf(“Even\n”);
else
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printf(“Odd\n”);
 if Statements with Compound
Statements

 To execute more than one statement as part of an if statement,

enclose them in { }. { } creates a block of code
if (score > 90)
{
grade = 'A';
printf(“Good Job!\n”);
}

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 Nested if Statements
evencount = oddcount = 0;

if ( (num % 2) == 0 )
{
printf(“%d is an even number.\n”, num);
 An if statement that is nested ++evencount;

inside another if statement if( (num % 4) == 0 )

printf(“It is divisible by 4\n”);
 Nested if statements can be if( num == 0 )
used to test more than one {
printf(“It is zero.\n”);
printf(“That isn’t interesting.\n”);
condition. }
}
else
if( marital_status == ‘S’ ) {
{ printf(“%d is an odd number.\n”, num);
if( gender == ‘M’ ) ++oddcount;
{
if( age >= 18 && age <= 26 ) if( (num % 9) == 0 )
{ printf(“It is divisible by 9\n”);
printf("All criteria are met.\n"); else
} printf(“It is not divisible by 9\n”);
} }
}

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