Algorithms

• What is an algorithm? = an algorithm is the step-by-step instructions followed to solve a problem.
• Pseudocode is a kind of structured English for describing algorithms. It is a generic code-like language that can be easily translated into any programming language.
• Sequence: Following instructions in a set order. This can be broken down into sub-tasks.
• Selection: Making decisions - a question is asked and depending on the answer the program takes one of two courses of action.
• Iteration: When a task is repeated until a required outcome or repeated a certain amount of times.
• Sub-tasks are the smaller steps of a sequence.
• Decomposition is to break down a problem into smaller and smaller sub-tasks.
• Why is decomposition important? = It’s important because it's easier to solve a small problem compared to a large one.
• What symbol is used to represent Start or End?

  
• What symbol is used to represent the input or output of data?

  
• What symbol is used when a decision has to be made?

  
• What symbol is used to represent when a process must be carried out?

  
• What is an operator? = An operator is a symbol that tells the computer to perform a specific action on some data.
• What is an operand = An operand is the data on which it performs the action on.
• Modulus returns the remainder.
• Division such as 13/3.

  13 is called the dividend

  3 is called the divisor
• The quotient is the number of times the divisor divides into the dividend
• The DIV operator returns the quotient.
• ^ is called a ‘caret’ and represents exponentiation and refers to ‘powers of’.
• switch/case is another method that can be used for selection.
• Boolean operators are NOT, AND, OR, NAND, and NOR
• Boolean operators are often referred to as Logic operators