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

Summary

In this chapter, we covered one of the two main pillars that programming rests on—how we can store, retrieve, and change data in the computer's memory using variables.

We learned that a variable has a name and a data type and that the type of the variable dictates what can be stored in it and how much memory it will use. We also learned how we could concisely name our variables and that there are naming conventions that we can use for guidance.

With that covered, we then talked about primary or primitive data types and saw that numbers are handled either as integers or floating-point numbers, which are further divided into different sizes, so we can pick a type that suits our needs and make sure we don't waste memory space.

Some data naturally comes in a sequence or in natural groups. For this data, we used a composite data type, and we saw that this type lets us work with groups of data.

We then talked about what operators are and how we can perform...