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Basics Review

We will not meet this week but i will post a video for you to watch before our next class.

Learning Goals

Preparation for next week's class: It is crucial to spend time this week reviewing all the basics:

This is a well being day so we do not meet, but you will need to prepare for the basics quiz that will take place next week.

All of what you need be deeply aware of, but most certainly have not mastered yet:

  • The term pseudocode and it's purpose Video at Khan Academy (3:26)
  • the purpose of flowcharts more info
  • that you will use pseudocode more that flowcharts
  • the difference between input, processing, and output
  • what a built-in function is in Python: Examples we have used: print(),int(),type(), and input().
  • the print built-in function
  • how to identify the function part and the argument part of a function
  • What an expression and statement is in Python
  • how to identify all these data types: str, int,float,bool,list,dict,set, and tuple (not recall, just identify)
  • what a variable is and the four major naming rules
  • that variable values with numbers never contain commas or dollar signs or other formatting other than convenience underscores.
  • that variables can change during program and why this is important
  • how variables are passed to a function
  • case-sensitivity regarding variable names
  • what snake_case is
  • What an operator is
  • What "literal" means in regards to programming
  • how to identify a string literal
  • how and why to enclose string literals with single, double, and triple quotes
  • the purpose of comments and the PEP 8 guidelines for comments
  • what are end-of-line comments and why are they are discouraged
  • how pseudocode is related to comments
  • how to print multiple values at once
  • how to use the input() function
  • that input() always returns a certain type and what that type is
  • how to convert input values to a particular type and the term used for that process
  • why it is important to convert types
  • calculation terms: expressions, operators, operands
  • the following math operators +, -, *,/,//,%,**
  • the basics of operator precedence, or order of operations
  • how to change order of evaluation with split expressions or parentheses
  • how to use the line continuation character
  • how to get around the use of the line continuation character
  • the default separator in print functions
  • how to change the default separator in print functions
  • the default end character in a print function
  • how to change the default end character in print functions
  • the escape characters in print functions \n \t \' \" \\
  • how to concatenate strings in variable expressions
  • how to format numbers with decimal places, widths, and commas
  • Formatting with f-strings

Everything above will be used over and over again as we work through this session.