Exercise 1 - Variables and data types
At the most general level of description what most programs do is work based from the data you
have given them.
As a result we need to store data and do something with it.
The storing is referred to a DATA Structures
The doing is referred to as ALGORITHMS.
Data Structures
Constants.
This is where a value does NOT change. This could be something like VAT which is fixed at 20% and
so we will always use a set value for our calucaltions.
Variables.
This is where our value will change. E.g. the length of our rectangle which we had set at 12. We
might not always want it to be this value so the name(identifier) length won’t change but our value
could.
Data types
Individual pieces of data in a Python program can only be of a certain limited range of
types. The data types we will be using are:
int – integer (number with no fractional part) e.g. 3, 100000000, -25
float – a floating point number e.g. 3.065, 10.0, -25.5
A floating point number is a computer representation of a real number.
It sometimes has to limit the number of significant digits.
str – a series of characters (letters, digits, punctuation, spaces) which might be a
word. In programming this is called a string. (str)
bool – has only two possible values, True or False. It is short for Boolean.
Variables in Python do not have a set specified type unlike other programming languages which
makes it easier. If name = 100 the program would read this as int/but if name = Bob the program
would read this as str.
Exercise 1.
Specification
Store and display some information about an animal –
its name, how many legs it has, its height in metres and whether it has a tail.
The algorithm for this task might be:
store animal’s name data
store animal’s leg data
store animal’s height data
store animal’s tail data
display animal’s name data
display animal’s leg data
display animal’s height data
display animal’s tail data
When coded in Python it might look like this:
name = "Elephant"
numLegs = 4
height = 4.5
hasTail = True
print(name)
print(numLegs)
print(height)
print(hasTail)
Which part is setting up the variables?
Type this code into a new window in your IDE. Save it and run it.
This code will produce the output
Elephant
4
4.5
True
The equal's sign "=" is the assignment operator. Think of it as "gets the value of".
After the statement name = "Elephant" is performed, any use of the identifier
name will produce the string "Elephant".
The second statement declares assigns the value 4 to an integer variable called
numLegs.
Imagine being somebody looking at the output without being able to see the code. It
wouldn't make a lot of sense. Anyone looking at it may have no idea what 4, 4.5 or
True refer to.
How the user experiences a program is called the user interface. It is a very important consideration
in the programming process.
The code below shows how to add text to label each piece of data.
print("Name:", name)
print("Number of legs:", numLegs)
print("Height in metres:", height)
print("Has a tail:", hasTail)
Try it!!
This code should produce:
Animal name: Elephant
Number of legs: 4
Height in metres: 4.0
Has a tail: True
Comments
Imagine being someone else looking at the code. What is its purpose? Who wrote it?
When? This information should be recorded in comments within the code. Comments
are notes in the code written for the programmer. In some languages these comments have //
before them but Comment lines in Python are preceded by a #.
Extension
Change the statements in the code example to describe
• a chicken
• a spider
• a fish
AND DON’T forget from now on…..USE YOUR COMMENTS!!!!