Programming Terminology - Python Programming MOOC 2023

Programming terminology - Python Programming MOOC 2023 https://programming-23.mooc.
fi/part-2/1-programming-terminology
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Christopher Joshua Fifield Log out
Part 2
Programming terminology
Learning objectives
After this section
!"You will be familiar with some essential terminology in programming

!"You will know the difference between a statement and an expression
!"You will be able to find out the data type of an evaluated expression
!"You will have learnt to use debugging methods to find mistakes in your code
In the first part of this course we didn't pay much attention to terminology, so let's
have a look at some central concepts in programming.
Statement
A statement is a part of the program which executes something. It often, but not
always, refers to a single command.
For example, print("Hi!") is a statement which prints out a line of text. Likewise,
number = 2 is a statement which assigns a value to a variable.
A statement can also be more complicated. It can, for instance, contain other
statements. The following statement spans three lines:
if name == "Anna":
print("Hi!")
number = 2
In the above case there are two statements (a print statement and an assignment
statement) within a conditional statement.
Block
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Programming terminology - Python Programming MOOC 2023 https://programming-23.mooc.fi/part-2/1-programming-terminology
A block is a group of consecutive statements that are at the same level in the
structure of the program. For example, the block of a conditional statement contains
those statements which are executed only if the condition is true.
if age > 17:

# beginning of the conditional block
print("You are of age!")
age = age + 1
print("You are now one year older...")
# end of the conditional block
print("This here belongs to another block")
In Python blocks are expressed by indenting all code in the block by the same amount
of whitespace.
NB: the main block of a Python program must always be at the leftmost edge of the
file, without indentation:
# this program will not work because it is not written at the leftmost egde of the fi
print("hello world")
print("this program is not very good...")
Expression
An expression is a bit of code that results in a determined data type. When the
program is executed, the expression is evaluated so that it has a value that can then
be used in the program.
Here are a few examples of expressions:
Expression Value Type Python data type
2 + 4 + 3 9 integer int
"abc" + "de" "abcde" string str
11 / 2 5.5 floating point number float
2 * 5 > 9 True Boolean value bool
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Because all expressions have a type, they can be assigned to variables:
# the variable x is assigned the value of the expression 1 + 2

x = 1 + 2
Simple expressions can be assembled together to form more complicated

expressions, for example with arithmetic operations:
# the variable y is assigned the value of the expression '3 times x plus x squared'
y = 3 * x + x**2
Function
A function executes some functionality. Functions can also take one or more
arguments, which are data that can be fed to and processed by the function.
Arguments are sometimes also referred to as parameters. There is a technical
distinction between an argument and a parameter, but the words are often used
interchangeably. For now it should suffice to remember that both terms refer to the
idea of some data passed to the function.
A function is executed when it is called. That is, when the function (and its arguments,
if any) is mentioned in the code. The following statement calls the print function
with the argument "this is an argument" :
print("this is an argument")
Another function you've already used often is the input function, which asks the
user for input. The argument of this function is the message that is shown to the
user:
name = input("Please type in your name: ")
In this case the function also returns a value. After the function has been executed,
the section of code where it was called is replaced by the value it returns; it is another
expression that has now been evaluated. The function input returns a string value
containing whatever the user typed in at the prompt. The value a function returns is
often stored in a variable so that it can be used in the program later on.
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Data type
Data type refers to the characteristics of any value present in the program. In the
following bit of code the data type of the variable name is string or str , and the data
type of the variable result is integer or int :
name = "Anna"
result = 100
You can use the function type to find out the data type of any expression. An
example of its use:
print(type("Anna"))
print(type(100))
Sample output
<class 'str'>
<class 'int'>
Syntax
Similarly to natural languages, the syntax of a programming language determines how
the code of a program should be written. Each programming language has its own
specific syntax.
The syntax of Python specifies, among other things, that the first line of an if
statement should end in a colon character, and the block of the statement should be
indented:
if name == "Anna":
print("Hi!")
If the syntactic rules of the programming language are not followed, there will be an
error:
if name == "Anna"
print("Hi!")
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Sample output
File "test.py", line 1
if name == "Anna"
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Debugging
If the syntax of the program is correct but the program still doesn't function as
intended, there is a bug in the program.
Bugs manifest in different ways. Some bugs cause an error during execution. For
example, the following program
x = 10
y = 0
result = x / y
print(f"{x} divided by {y} is {result}")
causes this error:
Sample output
ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero on line 3
The problem here is mathematical in nature: division by zero is not allowed, and this
halts the execution of the program.
Errors during execution are usually rather easy to fix, because the error message
states the line of code causing the error. Of course the actual reason for the bug
might be somewhere quite different than the line of code causing the error.
Sometimes a bug in the program is revealed because the result the code produces is
wrong. Discovering and locating this type of bug can be challenging. In the
programming exercises on this course the tests are usually intended to reveal bugs of
this type. Before a bug can be fixed, its cause must first be located.
Programming jargon refers to discovering the causes of bugs as debugging. It is an

extremely important skill in any programmer's toolbox. Professional programmers
often spend more time debugging than writing fresh code.
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A simple yet effective way of debugging a program is adding debugging print

statements to your code. Verifying the results of your code with print commands
gives a quick confirmation the code does what you want it to do.
The following is an attempt to solve one of the exercises from the previous section:
hourly_wage = float(input("Hourly wage: "))

hours = int(input("Hours worked: "))
day = input("Day of the week: ")
daily_wages = hourly_wage * hours

if day == "sunday":
daily_wages * 2
print(f"Daily wages: {daily_wages} euros")
The program doesn't work quite right. Executing the tests prints out the following:
Sample output
FAIL: PythonEditorTest: test_sunday_1
With input 20.0,6,Sunday correct wage 240.0 is not found in output Daily wages: 120.
When debugging the exercises on this course, the first step is often checking how the
program behaves with the input specified in the test that failed. Indeed the result isn't
what was expected:
Sample output
Daily wages: 120.0 euros
Debugging usually means running the program multiple times. It can come in handy
to temporarily "hard-code" the problematic input, instead of asking the user for input
each time. In this case hard-coding could look like this:
# hourly_wage = float(input("Hourly wage: "))

# hours = int(input("Hours worked: "))
# day = input("Day of the week: ")
hourly_wage = 20.0
hours = 6
day = "Sunday"
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if day == "sunday":
daily_wages * 2
The next step could be adding debugging print statements. The problematic part of the
code is in the section dealing with Sundays, so let's add print commands before and
after the line that should double the daily wages on Sundays:
# ...

if day == "sunday":
print("wages before:", daily_wages)
daily_wages * 2
print("wages after doubling:", daily_wages)
Running the code now reveals nothing - the debugging print statements aren't
printed at all. It seems that the contents of the if block are never executed, so there
must be a problem with the conditional statement. Let's try printing out the value of
the Boolean expression:
# ...

print("condition:", day == "sunday")
if day == "sunday":
daily_wages * 2
Indeed, the value is False , so the contents of the if block are never executed:
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Sample output
condition: False
The issue must then lie within the condition of the if statement. As in so many
situations in programming, the case of letters matters also in comparisons. Notice
how the "sunday" in the Boolean expression has not been capitalized, but in the input
it was. Let's fix this (in both the print command and the if statement):
# ...

print("condition:", day == "Sunday")
if day == "Sunday":
daily_wages * 2
Running this prints out the following:
Sample output
condition: True
wages before: 120
wages after doubling: 120
It seems the value stored in daily_wages is correct at first: hourly_wage = 20.0

and hours = 6 , and 20.0 * 6 = 120.0. The command which is supposed to double
the figure doesn't do so, however, so there must be a problem with the command.
And indeed the command
daily_wages * 2
does double the value, but it doesn't store the new value anywhere. Let's change it so
it also stores the new value:
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daily_wages *= 2
Running the program again reveals that the printout at the end is now also correct:
Sample output
condition: True
wages before: 120
wages after doubling: 240
When the program has been fixed, remember to remove all debugging print
statements and other code added for debugging purposes.
This example was quite simple, and in such a short program one could probably
figure out the bugs just by reading the code carefully. However, using debugging print
statements is often a quick way to get a feeling for where the problem might lie. Print
statements can be used to figure out which parts of the program seem to work
correctly, so bug tracking efforts can be concentrated on the sections of code which
are the most likely culprits.
Debugging print statements are only one tool for debugging programs. We will come
back to this subject later on during this course. You should now get into the habit of
using debugging print statements to look for mistakes in your code. Programming
professionals cannot get by without using them, so it is a very useful tool for
beginners as well.
Programming exercise: Points:
Fix the syntax 1/1
The following program contains several syntactic errors. Please fix the program
so that the syntax is in order and the program works as specified by the
examples below.
number = input("Please type in a number: ")

if number>100
print("The number was greater than one hundred")
number - 100
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print("Now its value has decreased by one hundred)

print("Its value is now"+ number)
print(number + " must be my lucky number!")
print("Have a nice day!)
Sample output
Please type in a number: 13

13 must be my lucky number!
Have a nice day!
Sample output
Please type in a number: 101

The number was greater than one hundred
Now its value has decreased by one hundred
Its value is now 1
1 must be my lucky number!
Have a nice day!
1 # Fix the program
2 number = int(input("Please type in a number: "))
3 if number > 100:
4 print("The number was greater than one hundred")
5 number1 = number - 100
6 print("Now its value has decreased by one hundred")
7 print(f'Its value is now {number1}')
8 else:
9 number1 = number
10 print(f'{number1} must be my lucky number!')
11 print("Have a nice day!")
RUN TEST Reset Model solution
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Number of characters 1/1
The function len can be used to find out the length of a string, among other
things. The function returns the number of characters in a string.
Some examples of how this works:
word = "abcd"
print(len(word))
print(len("hi there"))
word2 = "howdydoody"
length = len(word2)
print(length)
empty_string = ""
length = len(empty_string)
print(length)
Sample output
4
8
10
0
Please write a program which asks the user for a word and then prints out the
number of characters, if there was more than one typed in.
Examples of expected behaviour:
Sample output
Please type in a word: hey

There are 3 letters in the word hey
Thank you!
Sample output
Please type in a word: banana
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There are 6 letters in the word banana

Thank you!
Sample output
Please type in a word: b

Thank you!
1 # Write your solution here
2 word = input("Please type in a word: ")
3 number = (len(word))
4 if number > 1:
5 print(f'There are {number} letters in the word {word}')
6
7 print("Thank you!")
Typecasting 1/1
When programming in Python, often we need to change the data type of a

value. For example, a floating point number can be converted into an integer
with the function int :
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temperature = float(input("Please type in a temperature: "))
print("The temperature is", temperature)
print("...and rounded down it is", int(temperature))
Sample output
Please type in a temperature: 5.15

The temperature is 5.15
...and rounded down it is 5
Notice the function always rounds down, and not according to the rounding
rules in mathematics. This is an example of a floor function.
Sample output
Please type in a temperature: 8.99

The temperature is 8.99
...and rounded down it is 8
Please write a program which asks the user for a floating point number and
then prints out the integer part and the decimal part separately. Use the
Python int function.
You can assume the number given by the user is always greater than zero.
An example of expected behaviour:
Sample output
Please type in a number: 1.34

Integer part: 1
Decimal part: 0.34
1 # Write your solution here
2 number = float(input("Please type in a number: "))
3 integer = int(number)
4 print(f'Integer part: {integer}')
5 print(f'Decimal part: {number - integer}')
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You have reached the end of this section! Continue to the next section:
2. More conditionals
You can check your current points from the blue blob in the bottom-right corner of
the page.
In this part:
1. Programming terminology
2. More conditionals
3. Combining conditions
4. Simple loops
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Source code of the material
Report issue Edit page
This course is created by the Agile Education Research group of the University of Helsinki.
About the material and its creators.
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Programming terminology - Python Programming MOOC 2023 https://programming-23.mooc.

Christopher Joshua Fifield Log out

After this section

!"You will be familiar with some essential terminology in programming

if age > 17:

print("This here belongs to another block")

Here are a few examples of expressions:

Expression Value Type Python data type

"abc" + "de" "abcde" string str

11 / 2 5.5 floating point number float

2 * 5 > 9 True Boolean value bool

Because all expressions have a type, they can be assigned to variables:

# the variable x is assigned the value of the expression 1 + 2

Simple expressions can be assembled together to form more complicated

name = input("Please type in your name: ")

print(f"{x} divided by {y} is {result}")

causes this error:

Programming jargon refers to discovering the causes of bugs as debugging. It is an

A simple yet effective way of debugging a program is adding debugging print

hourly_wage = float(input("Hourly wage: "))

daily_wages = hourly_wage * hours

print(f"Daily wages: {daily_wages} euros")

Daily wages: 120.0 euros

# hourly_wage = float(input("Hourly wage: "))

daily_wages = hourly_wage * hours

print(f"Daily wages: {daily_wages} euros")

daily_wages = hourly_wage * hours

print(f"Daily wages: {daily_wages} euros")

daily_wages = hourly_wage * hours

print(f"Daily wages: {daily_wages} euros")

daily_wages = hourly_wage * hours

print(f"Daily wages: {daily_wages} euros")

Running this prints out the following:

It seems the value stored in daily_wages is correct at first: hourly_wage = 20.0

Programming exercise: Points:

Fix the syntax 1/1

number = input("Please type in a number: ")

print("Now its value has decreased by one hundred)

Please type in a number: 13

Please type in a number: 101

RUN TEST Reset Model solution

Programming exercise: Points:

Number of characters 1/1

Some examples of how this works:

Examples of expected behaviour:

Please type in a word: hey

Please type in a word: banana

There are 6 letters in the word banana

Please type in a word: b

RUN TEST Reset Model solution

Programming exercise: Points:

When programming in Python, often we need to change the data type of a

temperature = float(input("Please type in a temperature: "))

print("The temperature is", temperature)

print("...and rounded down it is", int(temperature))

Please type in a temperature: 5.15

Please type in a temperature: 8.99