computer programming tutorial

About the Tutorial Computer programming is the act of writing computer programs, which are a sequence of instructions written using a Computer Programming Language to perform a specified task by the computer Computer Programming is fun and easy to learn provided you adopt a proper approach This tutorial attempts to cover the basics of computer programming using a simple and practical approach for the benefit of novice learners Audience This tutorial has been prepared for the beginners who are willing to learn computer programming but they are unable to learn it due to lack of proper guidance We are confident that after completing this tutorial, you will be at a level where you can code in C Programming language and will have a basic understanding of Java and Python programming languages as well from where you can continue further If you are completely new to Computer Programming, then we recommend you to read this tutorial twice or even thrice First reading will not give you much idea, but during your second reading, you will start grasping most of the concepts and you will enjoy writing computer programs Prerequisites We not expect much from you as prerequisites, however, we assume that you have some amount of exposure to computers and its peripherals like keyboard, mouse, screen, printer, etc Copyright & Disclaimer  Copyright 2014 by Tutorials Point (I) Pvt Ltd All the content and graphics published in this e-book are the property of Tutorials Point (I) Pvt Ltd The user of this e-book is prohibited to reuse, retain, copy, distribute or republish any contents or a part of contents of this e-book in any manner without written consent of the publisher We strive to update the contents of our website and tutorials as timely and as precisely as possible, however, the contents may contain inaccuracies or errors Tutorials Point (I) Pvt Ltd provides no guarantee regarding the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of our website or its contents including this tutorial If you discover any errors on our website or in this tutorial, please notify us at contact@tutorialspoint.com i Table of Contents About the Tutorial ····································································································································· i Audience ···················································································································································· i Prerequisites ·············································································································································· i Copyright & Disclaimer ······························································································································ i Table of Contents ······································································································································ ii OVERVIEW····························································································································· Introduction to Computer Program ··········································································································· Introduction to Computer Programming ··································································································· Uses of Computer Programs ····················································································································· Computer Programmer ····························································································································· Algorithm ·················································································································································· BASICS ··································································································································· ENVIORNMENT······················································································································ Text Editor ················································································································································ Compiler ··················································································································································· Interpreter ················································································································································ Online Compilation ································································································································· 10 BASIC SYNTAX······················································································································ 11 Hello World Program in C························································································································ 11 Syntax Error ············································································································································ 15 Hello World Program in Java ··················································································································· 15 Hello World Program in Python ·············································································································· 16 DATA TYPES ························································································································· 17 C and Java Data Types ····························································································································· 18 ii Python Data Types ·································································································································· 19 VARIABLES ··························································································································· 20 Creating variables ··································································································································· 20 Store Values in Variables ························································································································ 21 Access Stored Values in Variables ··········································································································· 22 Variables in Java ····································································································································· 23 Variables in Python ································································································································· 24 KEYWORDS ·························································································································· 26 C Programming Reserved Keywords ······································································································· 27 Java Programming Reserved Keywords ··································································································· 27 Python Programming Reserved Keywords ······························································································ 28 OPERATORS ························································································································· 30 Arithmetic Operators ······························································································································ 30 Relational Operators ······························································································································· 32 Logical Operators ···································································································································· 34 Operators in Java ···································································································································· 36 Operators in Python································································································································ 37 DECISION STATEMENTS ······································································································· 39 if else statement ··································································································································· 41 if else if else statement ······················································································································· 42 The switch statement ····························································································································· 44 Decisions in Java ····································································································································· 46 Decisions in Python ································································································································· 47 10 LOOPS ································································································································· 48 The while Loop········································································································································ 50 The while Loop ································································································································ 51 iii The break statement ······························································································································· 53 The continue statement ·························································································································· 54 Loops in Java ··········································································································································· 56 Loops in Python ······································································································································ 56 11 NUMBERS ··························································································································· 58 Math Operations on Numbers ················································································································ 59 Numbers in Java······································································································································ 62 Numbers in Python ································································································································· 63 12 CHARACTERS ······················································································································· 65 Escape Sequences ··································································································································· 66 Characters in Java ··································································································································· 68 Characters in Python ······························································································································· 69 13 ARRAYS ······························································································································· 70 Create Arrays ·········································································································································· 71 Initializing Arrays ···································································································································· 71 Accessing Array Elements ······················································································································· 72 Arrays in Java ·········································································································································· 73 Arrays (Lists) in Python ··························································································································· 74 14 STRINGS ······························································································································ 76 Basic String Concepts ······························································································································ 79 Strings in Java ········································································································································· 79 Strings in Python ····································································································································· 80 15 FUNCTIONS ························································································································· 82 Defining a Function ································································································································· 84 Calling a Function ···································································································································· 84 Functions in Java ····································································································································· 86 iv Functions in Python ································································································································ 87 16 FILE I/O································································································································ 89 Computer Files ········································································································································ 89 File Input/Output ···································································································································· 89 File Operation Modes ····························································································································· 89 Opening Files ·········································································································································· 90 Closing a File ··········································································································································· 91 Writing a File··········································································································································· 91 Reading a File ·········································································································································· 92 File I/O in Java ········································································································································ 93 File I/O in Python ···································································································································· 94 17 SUMMARY··························································································································· 96 v Computer Programming OVERVIEW Introduction to Computer Program Before getting into computer programming, let us first understand computer programs and what they A computer program is a sequence of instructions written using a Computer Programming Language to perform a specified task by the computer The two important terms that we have used in the above definition are:  Sequence of instructions  Computer Programming Language To understand these terms, consider a situation when someone asks you about how to go to a nearby KFC What exactly you to tell him the way to go to KFC? You will use Human Language to tell the way to go to KFC, something as follows: First go straight, after half kilometer, take left from the red light and then drive around one kilometer and you will find KFC at the right Here, you have used English Language to give several steps to be taken to reach KFC If they are followed in the following sequence, then you will reach KFC: Go straight Drive half kilometer Take left Drive around one kilometer Search for KFC at your right side Now, try to map the situation with a computer program The above sequence of instructions is actually a Human Program written in English Language, which instructs on how to reach KFC from a given starting point This same sequence could have been given in Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, or any other human language, provided the person seeking direction knows any of these languages Now, let's go back and try to understand a computer program, which is a sequence of instructions written in a Computer Language to perform a specified task by the computer Following is a simple program written in Python programming Language: Computer Programming print "Hello, World!" The above computer program instructs the computer to print "Hello, World!" on the computer screen  A computer program is also called a computer software, which can range from two lines to millions of lines of instructions  Computer program instructions are also called program source code and computer programming is also called program coding  A computer without a computer program is just a dump box; it is programs that make computers active As we have developed so many languages to communicate among ourselves, computer scientists have developed several computer-programming languages to provide instructions to the computer (i.e., to write computer programs) We will see several computer programming languages in the subsequent chapters Introduction to Computer Programming If you understood what a computer program is, then we will say: the act of writing computer programs is called computer programming As we mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of programming languages, which can be used to write computer programs and following are a few of them:  Java  C  C++  Python  PHP  Perl  Ruby Uses of Computer Programs Today computer programs are being used in almost every field, household, agriculture, medical, entertainment, defense, communication, etc Listed below are a few applications of computer programs:  MS Word, MS Excel, Adobe Photoshop, Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc., are examples of computer programs  Computer programs are being used to develop graphics and special effects in movie making Computer Programming  Computer programs are being used to perform Ultrasounds, X-Rays, and other medical examinations  Computer programs are being used in our mobile phones for SMS, Chat, and voice communication Computer Programmer Someone who can write computer programs or in other words, someone who can computer programming is called a Computer Programmer Based on computer programming language expertise, we can name a computer programmers as follows:  C Programmer  C++ Programmer  Java Programmer  Python Programmer  PHP Programmer  Perl Programmer  Ruby Programmer Algorithm From programming point of view, an algorithm is a step-by-step procedure to resolve any problem An algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite set of well-defined instructions Thus, a computer programmer lists down all the steps required to resolve a problem before writing the actual code Following is a simple example of an algorithm to find out the largest number from a given list of numbers: Get a list of numbers L1, L2, L3 LN Assume L1 is the largest, Take next number Li from the list and the following If Largest is less than Li Largest = Li If Li is last number from the list then Print value stored in Largest and come out Else repeat same process starting from step Largest = L1 Computer Programming The above algorithm has been written in a crude way to help beginners understand the concept You will come across more standardized ways of writing computer algorithms as you move on to advanced levels of computer programming Computer Programming 15 FUNCTIONS A function is a block of organized, reusable code that is used to perform a single, related action Functions provide better modularity for your application and a high degree of code reusing You have already seen various functions like printf() and main() These are called built-in functions provided by the language itself, but we can write our own functions as well and this tutorial will teach you how to write and use those functions in C programming language Good thing about functions is that they are famous with several names Different programming languages name them differently, for example, functions, methods, sub-routines, procedures, etc If you come across any such terminology, then just imagine about the same concept, which we are going to discuss in this tutorial Let's start with a program where we will define two arrays of numbers and then from each array, we will find the biggest number Given below are the steps to find out the maximum number from a given set of numbers: Get a list of numbers L1, L2, L3 LN Assume L1 is the largest, Take next number Li from the list and the following Set max = L1 If max is less than Li Set max = Li If Li is last number from the list then Print value stored in max and come out Else prepeat same process starting from step Let's translate the above program in C programming language: #include main() { int set1[5] = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50}; int set2[5] = {101, 201, 301, 401, 501}; int i, max; /* Process first set of numbers available in set1[] */ 82 Computer Programming max = set1[0]; i = 1; while( i < ) { if( max < set1[i] ) { max = set1[i]; } i = i + 1; } printf("Max in first set = %d\n", max ); /* Now process second set of numbers available in set2[] */ max = set2[0]; i = 1; while( i < ) { if( max < set2[i] ) { max = set2[i]; } i = i + 1; } printf("Max in second set = %d\n", max ); } When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result: Max in first set = 50 Max in second set = 501 If you are clear about the above example, then it will become easy to understand why we need a function In the above example, there are only two sets of numbers, set1 and set2, but consider a situation where we have 10 or more similar sets of numbers to find out the maximum numbers from each set In such a situation, we will have to repeat, processing 10 or more times and ultimately, the program will become too large with repeated code To handle 83 Computer Programming such situation, we write our functions where we try to keep the source code which will be used again and again in our programming Now, let's see how to define a function in C programming language and then in the subsequent sections, we will explain how to use them Defining a Function The general form of a function definition in C programming language is as follows: return_type function_name( parameter list ) { body of the function return [expression]; } A function definition in C programming consists of a function header and a function body Here are all the parts of a function:  Return Type: A function may return a value The return_type is the data type of the value the function returns Some functions perform the desired operations without returning a value In this case, the return_type is the keyword void  Function Name: This is the actual name of the function The function name and the parameter list together constitute the function signature  Parameter List: A parameter is like a placeholder When a function is invoked, you pass a value as a parameter This value is referred to as the actual parameter or argument The parameter list refers to the type, order, and number of the parameters of a function Parameters are optional; that is, a function may contain no parameters  Function Body: The function body contains a collection of statements that defines what the function does Calling a Function While creating a C function, you give a definition of what the function has to To use a function, you will have to call that function to perform a defined task Now, let's write the above example with the help of a function: #include 84 Computer Programming int getMax( int set[] ) { int i, max; max = set[0]; i = 1; while( i < ) { if( max < set[i] ) { max = set[i]; } i = i + 1; } return max; } main() { int set1[5] = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50}; int set2[5] = {101, 201, 301, 401, 501}; int max; /* Process first set of numbers available in set1[] */ max = getMax(set1); printf("Max in first set = %d\n", max ); /* Now process second set of numbers available in set2[] */ max = getMax(set2); printf("Max in second set = %d\n", max ); } When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result: 85 Computer Programming Max in first set = 50 Max in second set = 501 Functions in Java If you are clear about functions in C programming, then it is easy to understand them in Java as well Java programming names them as methods, but the rest of the concepts remain more or less same Following is the equivalent program written in Java You can try to execute it to see the output: public class DemoJava { public static void main(String []args) { int[] set1 = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50}; int[] set2 = {101, 201, 301, 401, 501}; int max; /* Process first set of numbers available in set1[] */ max = getMax(set1); System.out.format("Max in first set = %d\n", max ); /* Now process second set of numbers available in set2[] */ max = getMax(set2); System.out.format("Max in second set = %d\n", max ); } public static int getMax( int set[] ) { int i, max; max = set[0]; i = 1; while( i < ) 86 Computer Programming { if( max < set[i] ) { max = set[i]; } i = i + 1; } return max; } } When the above program is executed, it produces the following result: Max in first set = 50 Max in second set = 501 Functions in Python Once again, if you know the concept of functions in C and Java programming, then Python is not much different Given below is the basic syntax of defining a function in Python: def function_name( parameter list ): body of the function return [expression] Using this syntax of function in Python, the above example can be written as follows: def getMax( set ): max = set[0] i = while( i < ): if( max < set[i] ): max = set[i] i = i + 87 Computer Programming return max set1 = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50] set2 = [101, 201, 301, 401, 501] # Process first set of numbers available in set1[] max = getMax(set1) print "Max in first set = ", max # Now process second set of numbers available in set2[] max = getMax(set2) print "Max in second set = ", max When the above code is executed, it produces the following result: Max in first set = Max in second set = 50 501 88 Computer Programming 16 FILE I/O Computer Files A computer file is used to store data in digital format like plain text, image data, or any other content Computer files can be organized inside different directories Files are used to keep digital data, whereas directories are used to keep files Computer files can be considered as the digital counterpart of paper documents While programming, you keep your source code in text files with different extensions, for example, C programming files end with the extension c, Java programming files with java, and Python files with py File Input/Output Usually, you create files using text editors such as notepad, MS Word, MS Excel or MS Powerpoint, etc However, many times, we need to create files using computer programs as well We can modify an existing file using a computer program File input means data that is written into a file and file output means data that is read from a file Actually, input and output terms are more related to screen input and output When we display a result on the screen, it is called output Similarly, if we provide some input to our program from the command prompt, then it is called input For now, it is enough to remember that writing into a file is file input and reading something from a file is file output File Operation Modes Before we start working with any file using a computer program, either we need to create a new file if it does not exist or open an already existing file In either case, we can open a file in the following modes:  Read-Only Mode: If you are going to just read an existing file and you not want to write any further content in the file, then you will open the file in read-only mode Almost all the programming languages provide syntax to open files in read-only mode  Write-Only Mode: If you are going to write into either an existing file or a newly created file but you not want to read any written content from that file, then you will open the file in write-only mode All the programming languages provide syntax to open files in write-only mode  Read & Write Mode: If you are going to read as well as write into the same file, then you will open file in read & write mode 89 Computer Programming  Append Mode: When you open a file for writing, it allows you to start writing from the beginning of the file; however it will overwrite existing content, if any Suppose we don’t want to overwrite any existing content, then we open the file in append mode Append mode is ultimately a write mode, which allows content to be appended at the end of the file Almost all the programming languages provide syntax to open files in append mode In the following sections, we will learn how to open a fresh new file, how to write into it, and later, how to read and append more content into the same file Opening Files You can use the fopen() function to create a new file or to open an existing file This call will initialize an object of the type FILE, which contains all the information necessary to control the stream Here is the prototype, i.e., signature of this function call: FILE *fopen( const char * filename, const char * mode ); Here, filename is string literal, which you will use to name your file and access mode can have one of the following values: Mode Description r Opens an existing text file for reading purpose w Opens a text file for writing If it does not exist, then a new file is created Here, your program will start writing content from the beginning of the file a Opens a text file for writing in appending mode If it does not exist, then a new file is created Here, your program will start appending content in the existing file content r+ Opens a text file for reading and writing both w+ Opens a text file for both reading and writing It first truncates the file to zero length, if it exists; otherwise creates the file if it does not exist a+ Opens a text file for both reading and writing It creates a file, if it does not exist The reading will start from the beginning, but writing can only be appended 90 Computer Programming Closing a File To close a file, use the fclose( ) function The prototype of this function is: int fclose( FILE *fp ); The fclose( ) function returns zero on success, or EOF, special character, if there is an error in closing the file This function actually flushes any data still pending in the buffer to the file, closes the file, and releases any memory used for the file The EOF is a constant defined in the header file stdio.h There are various functions provided by C standard library to read and write a file character by character or in the form of a fixed length string Let us see a few of them in the next section Writing a File Given below is the simplest function to write individual characters to a stream: int fputc( int c, FILE *fp ); The function fputc() writes the character value of the argument c to the output stream referenced by fp It returns the written character written on success, otherwise EOF if there is an error You can use the following functions to write a null-terminated string to a stream: int fputs( const char *s, FILE *fp ); The function fputs() writes the string s into the file referenced by fp It returns a non-negative value on success, otherwise EOF is returned in case of any error You can also use the function int fprintf(FILE *fp,const char *format, ) to write a string into a file Try the following example: #include main() { FILE *fp; fp = fopen("/tmp/test.txt", "w+"); fprintf(fp, "This is testing for fprintf \n"); fputs("This is testing for fputs \n", fp); fclose(fp); } 91 Computer Programming When the above code is compiled and executed, it creates a new file test.txt in /tmp directory and writes two lines using two different functions Let us read this file in the next section Reading a File Given below is the simplest function to read a text file character by character: int fgetc( FILE * fp ); The fgetc() function reads a character from the input file referenced by fp The return value is the character read; or in case of any error, it returns EOF The following function allows you to read a string from a stream: char *fgets( char *buf, int n, FILE *fp ); The function fgets() reads up to n - characters from the input stream referenced by fp It copies the read string into the buffer buf, appending a null character to terminate the string If this function encounters a newline character '\n' or EOF before they have read the maximum number of characters, then it returns only the characters read up to that point including the new line character You can also use int fscanf(FILE *fp, const char *format, ) to read strings from a file, but it stops reading after encountering the first space character #include main() { FILE *fp; char buff[255]; fp = fopen("/tmp/test.txt", "r"); fscanf(fp, "%s", buff); printf("1 : %s\n", buff ); fgets(buff, 255, (FILE*)fp); printf("2: %s\n", buff ); fgets(buff, 255, (FILE*)fp); printf("3: %s\n", buff ); fclose(fp); 92 Computer Programming } When the above code is compiled and executed, it reads the file created in the previous section and produces the following result: : This 2: is testing for fprintf 3: This is testing for fputs Let's analyze what happened here First, the fscanf() method reads This because after that, it encountered a space The second call is for fgets(), which reads the remaining line till it encountered end of line Finally, the last call fgets() reads the second line completely File I/O in Java Java provides even richer set of functions to handle File I/O For more on this topic, we suggest you to check our Java Tutorials Here, we will see a simple Java program, which is equivalent to the C program explained above This program will open a text file, write a few text lines into it, and close the file Finally, the same file is opened and then read from an already created file You can try to execute the following program to see the output: import java.io.*; public class DemoJava { public static void main(String []args) throws IOException { File file = new File("/tmp/java.txt"); // Create a File file.createNewFile(); // Creates a FileWriter Object using file object FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(file); 93 Computer Programming // Writes the content to the file writer.write("This is testing for Java write \n"); writer.write("This is second line \n"); // Flush the memory and close the file writer.flush(); writer.close(); // Creates a FileReader Object FileReader reader = new FileReader(file); char [] a = new char[100]; // Read file content in the array reader.read(a); System.out.println( a ); // Close the file reader.close(); } } When the above program is executed, it produces the following result: This is testing for Java write This is second line File I/O in Python The following program shows the same functionality to open a new file, write some content into it, and finally, read the same file: # Create a new file fo = open("/tmp/python.txt", "w") # Writes the content to the file fo.write( "This is testing for Python write \n"); fo.write( "This is second line \n"); 94 Computer Programming # Close the file fo.close() # Open existing file fo = open("/tmp/python.txt", "r") # Read file content in a variable str = fo.read(100); print str # Close opened file fo.close() When the above code is executed, it produces the following result: This is testing for Python write This is second line 95 Computer Programming 17 SUMMARY We appreciate your patience for going through this tutorial We have tried to keep it concise but as this subject contains several topics, we have shown a few examples in detail If you have not understood any of the concepts, then we recommend to go through the tutorial once again and once you are comfortable with the concepts explained in this tutorial, you can proceed further There are many other subjects related to computer programming which we did not cover intentionally to avoid any confusion, but we are sure those concepts will not be difficult for you to understand as long as you make yourself comfortable with the concepts explained in this tutorial At tutorialspoint, we have put lots of effort to prepare comprehensive tutorials on C, Java, and Python programming languages and we strongly recommend you to start either of them, after having completed this tutorial Kindly share with us your views about this tutorial, mentioning the tutorial name in the subject line at webmaster@tutorialspoint.com If you have any suggestion to improve this tutorial further, then we would definitely like to hear from you 96