Topic 2-Programming

Question 1

What is casting?

Answer 1

Technical term for assigning a different data type to a variable.

Question 2

What is a string?

Answer 2

Sequence of anything.

Question 3

What is float/real?

Answer 3

Decimal number.

Question 4

What is a character?

Answer 4

A single character.

Question 5

What is a boolean?

Answer 5

2 possible states.

Question 6

What is robust?

Answer 6

Efficient in time, design and no repeating.

Question 7

What is a variable?

Answer 7

Data values that can change.

Question 8

What is div?

Answer 8

Integer division.

Question 9

What is division?

Answer 9

Full division.

Question 10

What do you need to remember when drawing logic gates?

Answer 10

To draw the input lines.

Question 11

What is a subroutine?

Answer 11

A set of code that can be called for frequent use within a program.

Question 12

What is the difference between a function and a procedure?

Answer 12

A function will return something to the main block of code whereas a procedure will not.

Question 13

What is a function parameter?

Answer 13

The names passed into the function.

Question 14

What is a function argument?

Answer 14

The value of the parameters.

Question 15

What do data structures allow?

Answer 15

They allow programmers to store together large amounts of data.

Question 16

What are some examples of high level/source code programming languages?

Answer 16

Python and Java.

Question 17

What is machine code?

Answer 17

Everything is turned to binary so it is the most efficient and only runs on 1 processor. However it is almost impossible for humans to understand.

Question 18

What is an example of a low level programming language?

Answer 18

Assembly. This is memory efficient but hard for humans to understand.

Question 19

What is an embedded system?

Answer 19

System with one function.

Question 20

What is an interpreter?

Answer 20

Translates code to machine code one statement at a time. This will tell you where the first error is which makes it easier to debug.

Question 21

What is a compiler?

Answer 21

Scans entire code at once and converts it into machine code. This will tell you all the errors.

Question 22

What are the pros and cons of interpreter’s and compiler’s.

Answer 22

Interpreter is faster to analyse source code but slower at the overall process.

Question 23

What is an assembler?

Answer 23

Converts low level language to machine code.

Question 24

What is a logical error?

Answer 24

It is an error in the logic of the code. Doesnt do what it is supposed to do.

Question 25

What is a syntax error?

Answer 25

Wrong grammar or things like that.

Question 26

What is a global variable?

Answer 26

A global variable is one which is declared in the main program and is recognised in all the subroutines called from the main program.

Question 27

What is a local variable?

Answer 27

Local variables are declared within a subroutine.

Question 28

What are the advantages of using a local variable?

Answer 28

• keeps the subroutine self-contained
• program will be easier to debug and maintain
• local variables save memory as the space used by local variables is freed up when the subroutine completes

Question 29

What is difference between assignment and declaration?

Answer 29

Declaration is declaring a variable, for example mylist=[] whereas assignment is actually assigning a value to it so it could be name=Mark.