Section 2
Variables
National 4/5
Scratch Course
What you should know after this
lesson
• What a variable is
• Where variables are stored
• How to get data from a user in scratch
• How to display information in scratch
Computer Memory
• A computer program needs to store all the
information it is working with in the
computers RAM. It does this using
memory addresses, these addresses are
numbers and because a computer is very
good with numbers, this is fast and
efficient.
Storing things in memory
• Humans are not good at remembering lots
of number (How many phone numbers can
you remember without using your
mobile?).
• So to help humans, high level languages
use variables to name the addresses.
Variables
These are storage locations in RAM,
controlled by the programming language.
What types of data might we need to use
with our programs?
The main ones we will be using are
– Numeric (numbers)
– String (text)
Numeric
• is used for calculations.
• If you need to use a piece of data in a
calculation you should use a numeric
variable.
String
• These are normally letters and other non
numeric characters.
• Numbers can be stored as strings if they
are not used in calculations.
– Phone numbers
– House numbers
Scratch Variables
The scratch language is able to work out the type
of variable we are using and as a result it only
has the one type of variable
1. Click on the variables tab
2. Click “Make a variable”
3. Type the name you want
to use for the variable
Displaying Variable
• We can get any sprite to speak by using
the say block from inside looks.
• Variables can be displayed on the stage or
hidden. It is often better to hide variables
at the start of a program.
As long as they
program it in!
Hi Standard grade the
sprites will say anything
you want them to!
Using a String Variable
• Copy the program show on
the right into your jotter, with
the heading.
• Enter the program into
scratch
• Remember to make the
variable name
Answer these questions in your
jotter
1. What does it do?
2. How can we make it say
“Hello” before Scratch asks
the question and when it
say’s the user’s name?
Copy this into your jotter
Edit your program in scratch to make it the same as
above.
Write a description of what join does in your jotter.
Concatenation (Join)
• Programmers often require to join two or
more strings of text together, this is called
concatenation. It is most often used when
displaying text but can also be used at
other times.
For Example The text string
“Hello Bob Roberts”
can also be written as
“Hello” & “ “ & “Bob” & “ “ & “Roberts”
More than one variable
• Programs can make use of lots of variables. Just
make a new variable in the variable tab
• Programmers use sensible names to keep track
of what variable does what.
• Answer only stores one value at a time so
remember to set a variable to answer after using
ask.
• Remember the sequence of a program is very
important, so make sure you think about what
you want the program to do.
An example of two variables
Review Questions
Copy and answer the following in your jotter
1. What is a variable?
2. Where variables are stored?
3. What command do we use in scratch to
get data from a user?
4. What command do we use in scratch to
display information?
Tasks
Create scratch programs to do the following
(save each in your network area).
1. Display a users name and age in a single
sentence.
2. Display a users full name separately.
3. Display a message from the user on the
screen.