Data
- basic unit in programming.
Data Type
Primitives
- Numbers
- Strings
- Boolean values (True or False)
Numbers
- Describe — numbers are used to express value: what is the frequency of a sound wave? We can express that in a number, such as 800hz.
- Calculate — numbers are used in calculations: what’s the distance between the earth and mars?
- Count — numbers are used to keep track: how many times did the car go around the track?
Strings
- represent other forms of data other than numbers
- Strings are any sequence of characters (letters, spaces, numbers, or symbols). While almost anything can be a string, they are typically used to represent text or speech. Similar to how we represent speech in writing, we surround strings with single (
'...'
) or double quotes ("..."
).
Uses of Strings
- To display data that uses text or symbols, like printing our name to the screen.
- To add or remove text. Since strings are a linear sequence of characters, we can break strings into even smaller strings, or combine strings to make longer ones.
- To modify characters. For example, we could capitalize the first letter of every word in a string if wanted to turn it into a title.
- To let the computer communicate with us in a “human-readable” way, like displaying the rules of an online game.
Boolean
- only have two values: true and false
- Logic is important to computer science because it is an early attempt at translating the human capacity for reason to computers.
- act as binary opposites
The term boolean comes from the inventor of a specific form of logic, George Boole.
Uses of Boolean
- To determine validity. For example, we want to know whether a meme is viral. If it’s been viewed more than 50 million times in less than a week, we’d say that it’s true that it went viral.
- To make decisions. For example, if I get an email, the program checks that the email is new and it displays at the top of my inbox.
Operators
- Making calculations using arithmetic operators.
- Comparing information using comparison operators.
- Creating logical expressions using logical (aka Boolean) operators.
- are symbols that represent different ways of modifying, comparing, and evaluating information.
Arithmetic Operators
used to make calculations.
- Addition adds an amount to a number:
2 + 3 = 5
- Subtraction takes away an amount from a number:
10 - 3 = 7
- Multiplication takes a number and repeats it a specified number of times:
5 * 2 = 10
- Division takes a number and divides it by another number:
15 / 3 = 5
Comparison Operators
determine the relationship between two values, which results in a boolean.
- Less than
<
— value to the left is less than the value to the right:2 < 6
- Greater than
>
— value to the left is more than the value to the right:14 > 5
- Equals
==
— value to the left is equal to the value to the right:3 == 3
If we have an unknown quantity.
strawberry_weight = ?
is (strawberry_weight == .5lb)? => true
If we need to compare two known values.
bananas = 5
oranges = 3
is (oranges > bananas)? => false
Boolean Expressions
- Expressions that evaluate to boolean values are known,
true
orfalse
Logical Operators
determine the logical state of multiple boolean values or expressions, which results in another boolean.
- also known as boolean operators, evaluate multiple boolean expressions.
- it looks at several relationships by connecting them with logical operators and then determining the logic/validity of the overall expression.
- AND — both expressions evaluate to true, so the final result is true:
((4 > 1) AND (2 < 7))
is the same as(TRUE AND TRUE)
. Evaluates to true.
- OR — one of the expressions evaluates to true, so the final result is true:
((8 > 6) OR (3 > 6))
is the same as(TRUE OR FALSE)
. Evaluates to true.
- NOT — an expression, no matter its logical value, evaluates to the opposite:
NOT (1 < 3)
evaluates toNOT (TRUE)
. Evaluates to false.
The larger the sample size and the more diverse your dataset is, the more confident you’ll be in your results.
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