Book Image

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

By : Joakim Wassberg
4 (1)
Book Image

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

4 (1)
By: Joakim Wassberg

Overview of this book

Learning how to code has many advantages, and gaining the right programming skills can have a massive impact on what you can do with your current skill set and the way you advance in your career. This book will be your guide to learning computer programming easily, helping you overcome the difficulties in understanding the major constructs in any mainstream programming language. Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners starts by taking you through the building blocks of any programming language with thorough explanations and relevant examples in pseudocode. You'll understand the relationship between computer programs and programming languages and how code is executed on the computer. The book then focuses on the different types of applications that you can create with your programming knowledge. You'll delve into programming constructs, learning all about statements, operators, variables, and data types. As you advance, you'll see how to control the flow of your programs using control structures and reuse your code using functions. Finally, you'll explore best practices that will help you write code like a pro. By the end of this book, you'll be prepared to learn any programming language and take control of your career by adding coding to your skill set.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Computer Programs and Computer Programming
6
Section 2: Constructs of a Programming Language
7
Chapter 5: Sequence – The Basic Building Block of a Computer Program
14
Section 3: Best Practices for Writing High-Quality Code
Appendix B: Dictionary
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W

Is smart code smart?

When you are a beginner programmer, you are happy that your programs work at all, and you will not pay much attention to what your code looks like or how it performs. The important thing is that you get the result you want on the screen.

But as you get more experienced and learn more, you will start to embrace what you might consider smart solutions. A smart solution, for you, might be that you can rewrite 10 lines of code so that it now is done in three.

The question you always should ask yourself is whether changes that are made to working code improve it in any way. Only if they do will the new code be considered smarter than it was before.

Imagine that you wrote a little game in Python. It has a loop that runs 10 times, and in each iteration, it will ask the user for a number, either 0 or 1. It will also randomly pick either a 0 or a 1. If the user guessed the same number as the computer picked, the user wins; otherwise, the user loses. The code might...