Chapter One

Introduction to Programming
 Introduction to Computer Programming
 Computer is an Electronic data processing device which is capable of
performing Arithmetic and Logical operations.
 Computer is an Electronic Machine that Receives Data from a user through an
Input devices
 It Stores and send the processed data, to an output device
 Computers are important and widely used in our society because they are
cost-effective to solve problems in business, government, industry, education,
etc.
 In order to solve a given problem, computers must be given the correct
instruction about how they can solve it.
 Computer programs, software programs, or just programs are the
instructions that tells the computer what to do.
 Computer programming (programming or coding) is the process of
writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code
of computer programs.
 Cont.…
• It is written by professionals known as Computer Programmers (simply
programmers).
– it is written in one of programming languages.
• A programming language is an artificial language that can be used to control
the behavior of a machine, particularly a computer.
• Programming languages, like natural language (Amharic, English), are
defined by syntactic and semantic rules which describe their structure and
meaning respectively.
• Many programming languages have their own written syntax and semantics
rules
• The main purpose of programming languages is to provide instructions to a
computer.
• Programming languages can be divided in to two major categories: low-level
and high-level languages.
 Low-level languages
• Low-level languages are machine-dependent; they are designed to be run on a
particular computer.
• Computers only understand one language i.e. binary language(1s and 0s).
• Binary language is also known as machine language, one of low-level
languages.
• The computer easily understood these programs, but its difficult for human
beings to remember all the instructions in the form of 0s and 1s.
• Therefore, computers remained secret to a common person until other
languages such as assembly language was developed.
Assembly language is symbolic instructions and executable machine codes.
 was created to use letters to each machine language instructions to make
it easier to remember or write.
 For example: ADD A, B – adds two numbers in memory location A and
B.
 a symbolic representation of machine code
• Computers still cannot understand it. The assembly language must be
translated to machine code by a separate program called assembler.
 High-level languages
• Programming in assembly language is very slow and bulky. In addition it is
hardware specific.
• The lack of portability between different computers led to the development of
high-level languages
– because they permitted a programmer to ignore many low-level details of
the computer's hardware.
• It’s easier for programmers to "think “" in the programming language.
• It also require translation to machine language before execution.
– Compilers translate the entire source code program before execution.
– Interpreters translate source code programs one line at a time.
Example FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator), BASIC (Bingers All Purpose
Symbolic Instruction Code), PASCAL, C, C++, Java etc.
• Every language has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, FORTRAN is a
particularly good language for processing numerical data, but it does not lend
itself very well to organizing large programs. Pascal is very good for writing
well-structured and readable programs, but it is not as flexible as the C
programming language. C++ embodies powerful object-oriented features
 Programming Paradigm.
• programming languages are characterized (categorized) is by programming
paradigm. A programming paradigm provides the programmer's view of
code execution.
Procedural Programming Languages
• Procedural programming specifies a list of operations that the program must
complete to reach the desired state.
• Each program has a starting state, a list of operations to complete, and an
ending point.
• Procedures are small sections of code that perform a particular function.
• It allows a section of code to be re-used in the program without making
multiple copies.
• It also makes it easier for programmers to understand and maintain program
structure.
• Two of the most popular procedural programming languages are FORTRAN
and BASIC.
 Cont.…
Structured Programming Languages
• It is a special type of procedural programming. It provides additional tools to
manage the problems that larger programs were creating.
• Structured programming requires that programmers break program structure
into small pieces of code that are easily understood.
• The most popular structured programming languages include C, Ada, and
Pascal.
Object-Oriented Programming Languages
• it is one the newest and most powerful paradigms.
• In object- oriented programs, the designer specifies both the data structures
and the types of operations that can be applied to those data structures.
• This pairing of a piece of data with the operations performed on an object.
• A program becomes a collection of cooperating objects, rather than a list of
instructions.
• Objects can store state information and interact with other objects, but
generally each object has a distinct, limited role.
 Problem solving techniques
• Computer solves varieties of problems that can be expressed in a finite
number of steps by writing different programs.
• Problem solving is the process of transforming the
description of a problem into the solution of that problem.
– by using the knowledge of the problem domain.

– by relying on your ability to select and use appropriate

problem-solving strategies, techniques, and tools.
• In computer programming the first part focuses on defining the problem and
logical procedures to follow in solving it.
• There are system analysis and design tools (flowchart and structure chart)
to define the problem in terms of steps to its solution.
 Cont….
• Before a program is written, the programmer must clearly understand what
data are to be used, the desired result, and the procedure to be used to produce
the result.
• The procedure, or solution is referred to as an algorithm.

• An algorithm is defined as a step-by-step sequence of instructions or

procedures that takes some value or a set of values as input and produces some
value or a set of values as output.
• There are three commonly used tools to express algorithm:-

– These are flowcharts, structured chart, and Pseudocode.

• Generally, flowcharts work well for small problems but Pseudocode is used
for larger problems.
 Cont.…
1. Structured chart: is a chart representation of an algorithm or a process.
They are used in structured programming to arrange program modules into a
chart.
Example: Write a program that asks the user to enter a temperature reading in
centigrade and then prints the equivalent Fahrenheit value.
Input Process Output
Centigrade  Read centigrade value Fahrenheit
 Compute Fahrenheit value
 Display Fahrenheit value
2. Flowchart: is a diagram representation of an algorithm or a process. Flowchart

uses different symbols (geometrical shapes) to represent different processes.

 Cont.…
Example 1: - Write an algorithm description and Draw flow chart to add two
numbers and display their result.
Algorithm description
• Read two numbers (A and B)
• Add A and B
• Assign the sum of A and B to C
• Display the result ( C)
 Cont.…
Example 2: Write an algorithm description and draw a flow chart to check a
number is negative or not.
Algorithm description.
1/ Read a number x
2/ If x is less than zero write a message negative
else write a message not negative
 Cont.…
 Some times there are conditions in which it is necessary to execute a group of
statements repeatedly. Until some condition is satisfied. This condition is
called a loop.
A loop normally consists of four parts. These are:
 Initialization: - Setting of variables of the computation to their initial values
and setting the counter for determining to exit from the loop.
 Computation: - Processing
 Test: - Every loop must have some way of exiting from it or else the program
would infinitely remain in a loop.
 Increment: - Re-initialization of the loop for the next loop.
Example 3: - Write the algorithmic description and draw a flow chart to find the
following sum. Sum = 1+2+3+…. + 50
 Cont.…
Algorithmic description
1. Initialize sum to 0 and counter to 1
1.1. If the counter is less than or equal to 50
• Add counter to sum
• Increase counter by 1
• Repeat step 1.1
1.2. Else
– Write sum
– Exit
 Cont.…
Exercise:
1, Write the algorithmic description and draw a flow chart to Calculate grade for
ten students based on the scale:
>80-A
>60-B
>50-C
>40-D
<40-F
2. Write an algorithm description and draw a flow chart to check a number is
ODD or EVEN.
 Cont.…
3. Pseudocode: (derived from pseudo and code) is an artificial and informal language
that helps programmers to develop algorithms.
Pseudocode is a "text-based" detail (algorithmic) design tool.
– It is much similar to real code.
Eg 1) : A certain company plan to give a 10% bonus to each of its employees at the end
of every year. If an employee has been working 10/more years at the company, she/he is
to get an additional birr 100. write A pseudo-code to calculate bonus for a given
employee
ACCEPT Name, Salary
Bonus=SalaryX0.1
ACCEPT Serviceyear
IF Serviceyear>10 Then
Bonus+100
ENDIF
DISPLAY Bonus
2) A pseudo-code to calculate interest rate
ACCEPT Name, Principal, Rate
Interest=Principal X Rate
DISPLAY Name, Interest
 Cont.…
3) A pseudo-code that calculates grade
ACCEPT Mark, Name
IF Mark>80 Then
GradeA
ELSE IF Mark>=70 Then
GradeB
ELSE IF Mark>=60 Then
GradeC
ELSE IF Mark>=50 Then
GradeD
ELSE
GradeF
ENDIF
DISPLAY Grade, Name
 Properties of an algorithm

 Finiteness: Algorithm must complete after a finite number of steps.

 Definiteness: Each step must be clearly defined, having one and only one
interpretation.
 Sequence: Each step must have a unique defined preceding and succeeding
step. The first step (start step) and last step (halt step) must be clearly noted.
 Correctness: It must compute correct answer for all possible legal inputs
 Language Independence: It must not depend on any programming language.
 Completeness: It must solve the problem completely.
 Effectiveness: It must be possible to perform each step exactly and in a finite
amount of time.
 Efficiency: It must solve with the least amount of computational resources
such as time and space.
 Generality: Algorithm should be valid on all possible inputs.
 Input/Output: There must be a specified number of input values, and one or
more result values.