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

Avoiding conflicts using namespaces

When writing code, you will constantly name things. The problem is, what if you give something a name that is already being used? We now know that the code for an application can consist of thousands of lines of code divided into hundreds of files. How can you make sure that the names you give something are not already taken? We also learned that we can install packages with code that others have written. How can we make sure that they have not given their packages names that we have already used? Or how can we make sure that a package we install is not using names that another package we already installed is using?

As you can see, handling names can be tricky. Let's look at an example. In Chapter 8, Understanding Functions, we will discuss what a function is and how it works. For this example, all we need to know about functions is that they have a name and consist of several lines of code. We use the function name to call it, which will...