Python Programming:

An Introduction to
Computer Science

Chapter 2
Writing Simple Programs

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Objectives
 To know the steps in an orderly
software development process.
 To understand programs following the
input, process, output (IPO) pattern
and be able to modify them in simple
ways.
 To understand the rules for forming
valid Python identifiers and expressions.

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Objectives
 To be able to understand and write
Python statements to output
information to the screen, assign values
to variables, get numeric information
entered from the keyboard, and
perform a counted loop

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The Software Development
Process
 The process of creating a program is
often broken down into stages
according to the information that is
produced in each phase.

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The Software Development
Process
Analyze the Problem
 Figure out exactly the problem to

be solved. Try to understand it as

much as possible.

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The Software Development
Process
Determine Specifications
 Describe exactly what your

program will do.

 Don’t worry about how the program will
work, but what it will do.
 Includes describing the inputs, outputs,
and how they relate to one another.

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The Software Development
Process
 Create a Design
 Formulate the overall structure of the
program.
 This is where the how of the program gets
worked out.
 Develop your own algorithm that meets the
specifications.

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The Software Development
Process
 Implement the Design
 Translate the design into a computer
language.
 In this course we will use Python.

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The Software Development
Process
 Test/Debug the Program
 Try out your program to see if it worked.
 If there are any errors (bugs), they need to
be located and fixed. This process is called
debugging.
 Your goal is to find errors, so try
everything that might “break” your
program!

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The Software Development
Process
 Maintain the Program
 Continue developing the program in
response to the needs of your users.
 In the real world, most programs are never
completely finished – they evolve over
time.

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Example Program:
Temperature Converter
 Analysis – the temperature is given in
Celsius, user wants it expressed in
degrees Fahrenheit.
 Specification
 Input – temperature in Celsius
 Output – temperature in Fahrenheit
 Output = 9/5(input) + 32

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Example Program:
Temperature Converter
 Design
 Input, Process, Output (IPO)
 Prompt the user for input (Celsius
temperature)
 Process it to convert it to Fahrenheit using
F = 9/5(C) + 32
 Output the result by displaying it on the
screen

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Example Program:
Temperature Converter
 Before we start coding, let’s write a
rough draft of the program in
pseudocode
 Pseudocode is precise English that
describes what a program does, step by
step.
 Using pseudocode, we can concentrate
on the algorithm rather than the
programming language.
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Example Program:
Temperature Converter
 Pseudocode:
 Input the temperature in degrees Celsius
(call it celsius)
 Calculate fahrenheit as (9/5)*celsius+32
 Output fahrenheit
 Now we need to convert this to Python!

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Example Program:
Temperature Converter
#convert.py
# A program to convert Celsius temps to Fahrenheit
# by: Susan Computewell

def main():
celsius = eval(input("What is the Celsius temperature? "))
fahrenheit = (9/5) * celsius + 32
print("The temperature is ",fahrenheit," degrees Fahrenheit.")

main()

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Example Program:
Temperature Converter
 Once we write a program, we should
test it!
>>>
What is the Celsius temperature? 0
The temperature is 32.0 degrees Fahrenheit.
>>> main()
What is the Celsius temperature? 100
The temperature is 212.0 degrees Fahrenheit.
>>> main()
What is the Celsius temperature? -40
The temperature is -40.0 degrees Fahrenheit.
>>>

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Elements of Programs
 Names
 Names are given to variables (celsius,
fahrenheit), modules (main, convert), etc.
 These names are called identifiers
 Every identifier must begin with a letter or
underscore (“_”), followed by any
sequence of letters, digits, or underscores.
 Identifiers are case sensitive.

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Elements of Programs
 These are all different, valid names
 X
 Celsius
 Spam
 spam
 spAm
 Spam_and_Eggs
 Spam_And_Eggs

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Elements of Programs
 Some identifiers are part of Python itself.
These identifiers are known as reserved
words (or keywords). This means they are
not available for you to use as a name for
a variable, etc. in your program.
 and, del, for, is, raise, assert, elif, in, print,
etc.
 For a complete list, see Table 2.1 (p. 32)

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Elements of Programs
 Expressions
 The fragments of code that produce or
calculate new data values are called
expressions.
 Literals are used to represent a specific
value, e.g. 3.9, 1, 1.0
 Simple identifiers can also be expressions.
 Also included are strings (textual data) and
string literals (like "Hello").

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Elements of Programs
>>> x=5
>>> x
5
>>> print(x)
5
>>> print(spam)

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "<pyshell#15>", line 1, in -toplevel-
print spam
NameError: name 'spam' is not defined
>>>
 NameError is the error when you try to use a
variable without a value assigned to it.
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Elements of Programs
 Simpler expressions can be combined using
operators.
 +, -, *, /, **
 Spaces are irrelevant within an expression.
 The normal mathematical precedence
applies.
 ((x1 – x2) / 2*n) + (spam / k**3)

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Elements of Programs
 Output Statements
 print()
 print(<expr>, <expr>, …, <expr>)

 A print statement can print any number of

expressions.
 Successive print statements will display on

separate lines.
 A bare print will print a blank line.

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 Elements of Programs
print(3+4) 7
print(3, 4, 3+4) 3 4 7
print()
print(3, 4, end=" "),
print(3 + 4)
print("The answer is", 3+4) 3 4 7
The answer is 7

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Assignment Statements
 Simple Assignment
 <variable> = <expr>
 variable is an identifier, expr is an
expression
 The expression on the RHS is evaluated
to produce a value which is then
associated with the variable named on
the LHS.

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Assignment Statements
 x = 3.9 * x * (1-x)
 fahrenheit = 9/5 * celsius + 32
 x = 5

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Assignment Statements
 Variables can be reassigned as many
times as you want!
>>> myVar = 0
>>> myVar
0
>>> myVar = 7
>>> myVar
7
>>> myVar = myVar + 1
>>> myVar
8
>>>

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Assignment Statements
 Variables are like a box we can put
values in.
 When a variable changes, the old value
is erased and a new one is written in.


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Assignment Statements
 Technically, this model of assignment is
simplistic for Python.
 Python doesn't overwrite these memory
locations (boxes).
 Assigning a variable is more like putting
a “sticky note” on a value and saying,
“this is x”.


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 Assigning Input
 The purpose of an input statement is to get
input from the user and store it into a
variable.
 <variable> = eval(input(<prompt>))
 Here, eval is wrapped around the input
function.

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Assigning Input
 First the prompt is printed
 The input part waits for the user to enter a
value and press <enter>
 The expression that was entered is
evaluated to turn it from a string of
characters into a Python value (a number).
 The value is assigned to the variable.
 For string input:
 <var> = input(<prompt>)

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Assigning Input
 Beware: the eval function is very
powerful and potentially dangerous!
 When we evaluate user input, we allow
the user to enter a portion of our
program, which Python will then
evaluate.

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Assigning Input
 Someone who knows Python could
exploit this ability and enter malicious
instructions, e.g. capture private
information or delete files on the
computer.
 This is called a code injection attack,
because an attacker is injecting
malicious code into the running
program.
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Assigning Input
 When writing programs for your own personal
use, this is probably not much of an issue.
 When the input is coming from untrusted
sources, like users on the Internet, the use of
eval could be disastrous.
 We will see some safer alternatives in the
next chapter.

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 Simultaneous Assignment
 Several values can be calculated at the
same time
 <var>, <var>, … = <expr>, <expr>, …
 Evaluate the expressions in the RHS and
assign them to the variables on the LHS

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Simultaneous Assignment
 sum, diff = x+y, x-y
 How could you use this to swap the
values for x and y?
 Why doesn’t this work?
 x=y
 y = x

 We could use a temporary variable…

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Simultaneous Assignment
 We can swap the values of two
variables quite easily in Python!
 x, y = y, x
>>> x = 3
>>> y = 4
>>> print(x, y)
3 4
>>> x, y = y, x
>>> print(x, y)
4 3

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Simultaneous Assignment
 We can use this same idea to input
multiple variables from a single input
statement!
 Use commas to separate the inputs
 def spamneggs():
 spam, eggs = eval(input("Enter # of slices of spam followed by # of eggs: "))
 print ("You ordered", eggs, "eggs and", spam, "slices of spam. Yum!“)

 >>> spamneggs()
 Enter the number of slices of spam followed by the number of eggs: 3, 2
 You ordered 2 eggs and 3 slices of spam. Yum!
 >>>

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Definite Loops
 A definite loop executes a definite
number of times, i.e., at the time
Python starts the loop it knows exactly
how many iterations to do.
 for <var> in <sequence>:
 <body>
 The beginning and end of the body are
indicated by indentation.

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Definite Loops
for <var> in <sequence>:
<body>
 The variable after the for is called the
loop index. It takes on each successive
value in sequence.
 Often, the sequence portion consists of
a list of values.
 A list is a sequence of expressions in
square brackets.
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Definite Loops
>>> for i in [0,1,2,3]:
print (i)

0
1
2
3
>>> for odd in [1, 3, 5, 7]:
print(odd*odd)

1
9
25
49

>>>

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Definite Loops
In chaos.py, what did range(10) do?
>>> list(range(10))
 [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
 range is a built-in Python function that
generates a sequence of numbers,
starting with 0.
 list is a built-in Python function that
turns the sequence into an explicit list
 The body of the loop executes 10 times.
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Definite Loops
 for loops alter the
flow of program
execution, so they
are referred to as
control structures.

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Example Program: Future
Value
 Analysis
 Money deposited in a bank account earns
interest.
 How much will the account be worth 10
years from now?
 Inputs: principal, interest rate
 Output: value of the investment in 10
years

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Example Program: Future
Value
 Specification
 User enters the initial amount to invest, the
principal
 User enters an annual percentage rate, the
interest
 The specifications can be represented like
this …

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Example Program: Future
Value
 Program Future Value
 Inputs
 principal The amount of money being
invested, in dollars
 apr The annual percentage rate expressed
as a decimal number.
 Output The value of the investment 10 years
in the future
 Relatonship Value after one year is given by
principal * (1 + apr). This needs to be done
10 times.
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Example Program: Future
Value
 Design
Print an introduction
Input the amount of the principal (principal)
Input the annual percentage rate (apr)
Repeat 10 times:
principal = principal * (1 + apr)
Output the value of principal

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Example Program: Future
Value
 Implementation
 Each line translates to one line of Python
(in this case)
 Print an introduction
 print ("This program calculates the future")
 print ("value of a 10-year investment.")
 Input the amount of the principal
 principal = eval(input("Enter the initial principal: "))

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Example Program: Future
Value
Input the annual percentage rate
 apr = eval(input("Enter the annual interest rate: "))
 Repeat 10 times:
 for i in range(10):
 Calculate principal = principal * (1 + apr)
 principal = principal * (1 + apr)
 Output the value of the principal at the end
of 10 years
 print ("The value in 10 years is:", principal)

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 Example Program: Future
Value
# futval.py
# A program to compute the value of an investment
# carried 10 years into the future

def main():
print("This program calculates the future value of a 10-year investment.")

principal = eval(input("Enter the initial principal: "))

apr = eval(input("Enter the annual interest rate: "))

for i in range(10):
principal = principal * (1 + apr)

print ("The value in 10 years is:", principal)

main()

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 Example Program: Future
Value
>>> main()
This program calculates the future value of a 10-year investment.
Enter the initial principal: 100
Enter the annual interest rate: .03
The value in 10 years is: 134.391637934
>>> main()
This program calculates the future value of a 10-year investment.
Enter the initial principal: 100
Enter the annual interest rate: .10
The value in 10 years is: 259.37424601

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