24ES101 PROBLEM SOLVING AND PYTHON PROGRAMMING

UNIT I
COMPUTATIONAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

Fundamentals of Computing – Identification of Computational Problems -Algorithms,

building blocks of algorithms (statements, state, control flow, functions), notation (pseudo
code, flow chart, programming language), algorithmic problem solving, simple
strategies for developing algorithms (iteration, recursion). Illustrative problems: find
minimum in a list, insert a card in a list of sorted cards, guess an integer number in a range,
Towers of Hanoi.

1.PROBLEM SOLVING
Problem solving is the systematic approach to define the problem and creating
number of solutions.
The problem solving process starts with the problem specifications and ends with a
Correct program.

1.1 PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES

Problem solving technique is a set of techniques that helps in providing logic for solving
a problem.
Problem Solving Techniques:
Problem solving can be expressed in the form of
1. Algorithms.
2. Flowcharts.
3. Pseudo codes.
4. programs
1.2.ALGORITHM
It is defined as a sequence of instructions that describe a method for solving a
problem. In other words it is a step by step procedure for solving a problem.
Properties of Algorithms
 Should be written in simple English
 Each and every instruction should be precise and unambiguous.
 Instructions in an algorithm should not be repeated infinitely.
 Algorithm should conclude after a finite number of steps.
 Should have an end point
 Derived results should be obtained only after the algorithm terminates.
Qualities of a good algorithm
The following are the primary factors that are often used to judge the quality of the
algorithms.
Time – To execute a program, the computer system takes some amount of time. The
lesser is the time required, the better is the algorithm.
Memory – To execute a program, computer system takes some amount of memory
space. The lesser is the memory required, the better is the algorithm.
Accuracy – Multiple algorithms may provide suitable or correct solutions to a given
problem, some of these may provide more accurate results than others, and such
algorithms may be suitable.

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Example:
Example
Write an algorithm to print „Good Morning”
Step 1: Start the program
Step 2: Print “Good Morning”
Step 3: Stop the program

2.BUILDING BLOCKS OF ALGORITHMS (statements, state, control flow, functions)

Algorithms can be constructed from basic building blocks namely, sequence,
selection and iteration.
2.1.Statements:
Statement is a single action in a computer.

In a computer statements might include some of the following actions

 input data-information given to the program
 process data-perform operation on a given input
 output data-processed result

2.2.State:
Transition from one process to another process under specified condition with in a
time is called state.

2.3.Control flow:
The process of executing the individual statements in a given order is called control
flow.
The control can be executed in three ways
1. sequence
2. selection
3. iteration

Sequence:
All the instructions are executed one after another is called sequence execution.

Example:
Add two numbers:
Step 1: Start the program
Step 2: get two inputs from user and assign them in A and B respectively
Step 3: Add the values of A and B and store the result in C
Step 4: Display the result C
Step 5: Stop the program

Selection:
A selection statement causes the program control to be transferred to a specific
part of the program based upon the condition.
If the conditional test is true, one part of the program will be executed, otherwise
it will execute the other part of the program.

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STEP 1: Start the Program

STEP 2: Get two inputs from user and assign them in A and B respectively

STEP 3: Add the values of A and B and store the result in C

STEP 4: Display the result C

STEP 5: Stop the Program

FLOWCHART

Write an algorithm to check whether he is eligible to vote?

Example
Step 1: Start the program
Step 2: Get an integer input from the user and assign it to age
Step 3: Check the given input value. if the input is greater than or equal to 18, then go
to step 4. Otherwise go to step 5.
Step 4: print “Eligible to vote”
Step 5: print “Not eligible to vote”
Step 6: Stop the program
Iteration:
In some programs, certain set of statements are executed again and again based
upon conditional test. i.e. executed more than one time. This type of execution is called
looping or iteration.

Example
Write an algorithm to print all natural numbers up to n
Step 1: Start the program
Step 2: get an integer input from the user and assign it to n.
Step 3: initialize the variable i to 1.
Step 4: check the value of i. If it is less than or eqaul to n then go to step 5 otherwise go
to step 7
Step 5: Print i value and increment i value by 1
Step 6: go to step 4
Step 7: Stop the program

2.4.Functions:
 Function is a sub program which consists of block of code(set of instructions)
that performs a particular task.
 For complex problems, the problem is been divided into smaller and simpler
tasks during algorithm design.

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Benefits of Using Functions
 Reduction in line of code
 code reuse
 Better readability
 Information hiding
 Easy to debug and test
 Improved maintainability
Example:
Algorithm for addition of two numbers using function
Main function()
Step 1: Start the program
Step 2: Call the function add()
Step 3: Stop the program

sub function add()

Step 1: Function start
Step 2: Get two inputs from user and assign them in a and b respectively
Step 3: Add the values of a and b and store the result in c
Step 4: Display the result c
Step 5: Return

3.NOTATIONS
3.1.FLOW CHART

Flow chart is defined as graphical representation of the logic for problem solving.
The purpose of flowchart is making the logic of the program clear in a visual
representation.

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Rules for drawing a flowchart
1. The flowchart should be clear, neat and easy to follow.
2. The flowchart must have a logical start and finish.
3. Only one flow line should come out from a process symbol.

4. Only one flow line should enter a decision symbol. However, two or three flow
lines may leave the decision symbol.

5. Only one flow line is used with a terminal symbol.

6. Within standard symbols, write briefly and precisely.

7. Intersection of flow lines should be avoided.

Advantages of flowchart:
1. Communication: - Flowcharts are better way of communicating the logic of a
system to all concerned.
2. Effective analysis: - With the help of flowchart, problem can be analyzed in more
effective way.

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 3. Proper documentation: - Program flowcharts serve as a good program
documentation, which is needed for various purposes.
4. Efficient Coding: - The flowcharts act as a guide or blueprint during the systems
analysis and program development phase.
5. Proper Debugging: - The flowchart helps in debugging process.
6. Efficient Program Maintenance: - The maintenance of operating program
becomes easy with the help of flowchart. It helps the programmer to put efforts
more efficiently on that part.
Disadvantages of flow chart:
1. Complex logic: - Sometimes, the program logic is quite complicated. In that case,
flowchart becomes complex and clumsy.
2. Alterations and Modifications: - If alterations are required the flowchart may
require re-drawing completely.
3. Reproduction: - As the flowchart symbols cannot be typed, reproduction of
flowchart becomes a problem.
4. Cost: For large application the time and cost of flowchart drawing becomes
costly.
3.2.PSEUDO CODE:
 Pseudo code consists of short, readable and formally styled English languages
used for explain an algorithm.
 It does not include details like variable declaration, subroutines.
 It is easier to understand for the programmer or non programmer to understand
the general working of the program, because it is not based on any programming
language.
 It gives us the sketch of the program before actual coding.
 It is not a machine readable
 Pseudo code can’t be compiled and executed.
 There is no standard syntax for pseudo code.
Guidelines for writing pseudo code:
 Write one statement per line
 Capitalize initial keyword
 Indent to hierarchy
 End multiline structure
 Keep statements language independent
Common keywords used in pseudocode
The following gives common keywords used in pseudocodes.
1. //: This keyword used to represent a comment.
2. BEGIN,END: Begin is the first statement and end is the last statement.
3. INPUT, GET, READ: The keyword is used to inputting data.
4. COMPUTE, CALCULATE: used for calculation of the result of the given expression.
5. ADD, SUBTRACT, INITIALIZE used for addition, subtraction and initialization.
6. OUTPUT, PRINT, DISPLAY: It is used to display the output of the program.
7. IF, ELSE, ENDIF: used to make decision.
8. WHILE, ENDWHILE: used for iterative statements.
9. FOR, ENDFOR: Another iterative incremented/decremented tested automatically.

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Syntax for if else: Example: Greates of two numbers
IF (condition)THEN BEGIN
statement READ a,b
... IF (a>b) THEN
ELSE DISPLAY a is greater
statement ELSE
... DISPLAY b is greater
ENDIF END IF
END
Syntax for For: Example: Print n natural numbers
FOR( start-value to end-value) DO BEGIN
statement GET n
... INITIALIZE i=1
ENDFOR FOR (i<=n) DO
PRINT i
i=i+1
ENDFOR
END
Syntax for While: Example: Print n natural numbers
WHILE (condition) DO BEGIN
statement GET n
... INITIALIZE i=1
ENDWHILE WHILE(i<=n) DO
PRINT i
i=i+1
ENDWHILE
END
Advantages:
 Pseudo is independent of any language; it can be used by most programmers.
 It is easy to translate pseudo code into a programming language.
 It can be easily modified as compared to flowchart.
 Converting a pseudo code to programming language is very easy as compared
with converting a flowchart to programming language.
Disadvantages:
 It does not provide visual representation of the program’s logic.
 There are no accepted standards for writing pseudo codes.
 It cannot be compiled nor executed.
 For a beginner, It is more difficult to follow the logic or write pseudo code as
compared to flowchart.
Example:
Addition of two numbers:
BEGIN
GET a,b
ADD c=a+b
PRINT c
END

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Algorithm Flowchart Pseudo code
An algorithm is a sequence It is a graphical It is a language
of instructions used to representation of algorithm representation of
solve a problem algorithm.
User needs knowledge to not need knowledge of Not need knowledge of
write algorithm. program to draw or program language to
understand flowchart understand or write a
pseudo code.

3.3.PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
A programming language is a set of symbols and rules for instructing a computer
to perform specific tasks. The programmers have to follow all the specified rules before
writing program using programming language. The user has to communicate with the
computer using language which it can understand.
Types of programming language
1. Machine language
2. Assembly language
3. High level language
Machine language:
The computer can understand only machine language which uses 0’s and 1’s. In
machine language the different instructions are formed by taking different
combinations of 0’s and 1’s.
Advantages:
Translation free:
Machine language is the only language which the computer understands. For
executing any program written in any programming language, the conversion to
machine language is necessary. The program written in machine language can be
executed directly on computer. In this case any conversion process is not required.
High speed
The machine language program is translation free. Since the conversion time is
saved, the execution of machine language program is extremely fast.
Disadvantage:
 It is hard to find errors in a program written in the machine language.
 Writhing program in machine language is a time consuming process.
Machine dependent: According to architecture used, the computer differs from each
other. So machine language differs from computer to computer. So a program
developed for a particular type of computer may not run on other type of computer.
Assembly language:
 To overcome the issues in programming language and make the programming
process easier, an assembly language is developed which is logically equivalent to
machine language but it is easier for people to read, write and understand.

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  Assembly language is symbolic representation of machine language. Assembly
languages are symbolic programming language that uses symbolic notation to
represent machine language instructions. They are called low level language
because they are so closely related to the machines.
Ex: ADD a, b
Assembler:
Assembler is the program which translates assembly language instruction in to a
machine language.
Advantage:
 Easy to understand and use.
 It is easy to locate and correct errors.
Disadvantage
Machine dependent
The assembly language program which can be executed on the machine depends
on the architecture of that computer.
Hard to learn
It is machine dependent, so the programmer should have the hardware
knowledge to create applications using assembly language.
Less efficient
 Execution time of assembly language program is more than machine language
program.
 Because assembler is needed to convert from assembly language to machine
language.
High level language
High level language contains English words and symbols. The specified rules are
to be followed while writing program in high level language. The interpreter or
compilers are used for converting these programs in to machine readable form.
Translating high level language to machine language
The programs that translate high level language in to machine language are called
interpreter or compiler.

Compiler:
A compiler is a program which translates the source code written in a high level
language in to object code which is in machine language program. Compiler reads the
whole program written in high level language and translates it to machine language. If
any error is found it display error message on the screen.

Interpreter
Interpreter translates the high level language program in line by line manner. The
interpreter translates a high level language statement in a source program to a machine

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code and executes it immediately before translating the next statement. When an error
is found the execution of the program is halted and error message is displayed on the
screen.
Advantages
Readability
High level language is closer to natural language so they are easier to learn and
understand
Machine independent
High level language program have the advantage of being portable between
machines.
Easy debugging
Easy to find and correct error in high level language
Disadvantages
Less efficient
The translation process increases the execution time of the program. Programs in
high level language require more memory and take more execution time to execute.

They are divided into following categories:

1. Interpreted programming languages
2. Functional programming languages
3. Compiled programming languages
4. Procedural programming languages
5. Scripting programming language
6. Markup programming language
7. Concurrent programming language
8. Object oriented programming language

Interpreted programming languages:

An interpreted language is a programming language for which most of its
implementation executes instructions directly, without previously compiling a program
into machine language instructions. The interpreter executes the program directly
translating each statement into a sequence of one or more subroutines already
compiled into machine code.
Examples:
Pascal
Python

Functional programming language:

Functional programming language defines every computation as a mathematical
evaluation. They focus on the programming languages are bound to mathematical
calculations
Examples:
Clean
Haskell

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Compiled Programming language:
A compiled programming is a programming language whose implementation are
typically compilers and not interpreters.
It will produce a machine code from source code.
Examples:
C
C++
C#
JAVA

Procedural programming language:

Procedural (imperative) programming implies specifying the steps that the
programs should take to reach to an intended state.
A procedure is a group of statements that can be referred through a procedure call.
Procedures help in the reuse of code. Procedural programming makes the programs
structured and easily traceable for program flow.
Examples:
Hyper talk
MATLAB

Scripting language:
Scripting language are programming languages that control an application.
Scripts can execute independent of any other application. They are mostly embedded in
the application that they control and are used to automate frequently executed tasks
like communicating with external program.

Examples:
Apple script
VB script

Markup languages:
A markup language is an artificial language that uses annotations to text that
define hoe the text is to be displayed.
Examples:
HTML
XML
Concurrent programming language:
Concurrent programming is a computer programming technique that provides
for the execution of operation concurrently, either with in a single computer or across a
number of systems.
Examples:
Joule
Limbo
Object oriented programming language:
Object oriented programming is a programming paradigm based on the concept
of objects which may contain data in the form of procedures often known as methods.

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Examples:
Lava
Moto

4.ALGORITHMIC PROBLEM SOLVING:

Algorithmic problem solving is solving problem that require the formulation of an

algorithm for the solution.

Understanding the Problem

 It is the process of finding the input of the problem that the algorithm solves.
 It is very important to specify exactly the set of inputs the algorithm needs to
handle.
 A correct algorithm is not one that works most of the time, but one that works
correctly for all legitimate inputs.
Ascertaining the Capabilities of the Computational Device

 If the instructions are executed one after another, it is called sequential

algorithm.

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  If the instructions are executed concurrently, it is called parallel algorithm.

Choosing between Exact and Approximate Problem Solving

 The next principal decision is to choose between solving the problem exactly or
solving it approximately.
 Based on this, the algorithms are classified as exact algorithm and approximation
algorithm.
Deciding a data structure:
 Data structure plays a vital role in designing and analysis the algorithms.
 Some of the algorithm design techniques also depend on the structuring data
specifying a problem’s instance
 Algorithm+ Data structure=programs.

Algorithm Design Techniques

 An algorithm design technique (or “strategy” or “paradigm”) is a general
approach to solving problems algorithmically that is applicable to a variety of
problems from different areas of computing.
 Learning these techniques is of utmost importance for the following reasons.
 First, they provide guidance for designing algorithms for new problems,
 Second, algorithms are the cornerstone of computer science

Methods of Specifying an Algorithm

 Pseudocode is a mixture of a natural language and programming language-like
constructs. Pseudocode is usually more precise than natural language, and its
usage often yields more succinct algorithm descriptions.

 In the earlier days of computing, the dominant vehicle for specifying algorithms
was a flowchart, a method of expressing an algorithm by a collection of
connected geometric shapes containing descriptions of the algorithm’s steps.

 Programming language can be fed into an electronic computer directly. Instead,

it needs to be converted into a computer program written in a particular
computer language. We can look at such a program as yet another way of
specifying the algorithm, although it is preferable to consider it as the algorithm’s
implementation.
Proving an Algorithm’s Correctness
 Once an algorithm has been specified, you have to prove its correctness. That is,
you have to prove that the algorithm yields a required result for every legitimate
input in a finite amount of time.
 A common technique for proving correctness is to use mathematical induction
because an algorithm’s iterations provide a natural sequence of steps needed for
such proofs.
 It might be worth mentioning that although tracing the algorithm’s performance
for a few specific inputs can be a very worthwhile activity, it cannot prove the
algorithm’s correctness conclusively. But in order to show that an algorithm is
incorrect, you need just one instance of its input for which the algorithm fails.

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Analysing an Algorithm
1. Efficiency.
Time efficiency, indicating how fast the algorithm runs,
Space efficiency, indicating how much extra memory it uses.

2. simplicity.
 An algorithm should be precisely defined and investigated with mathematical
expressions.
 Simpler algorithms are easier to understand and easier to program.
 Simple algorithms usually contain fewer bugs.

Coding an Algorithm
 Most algorithms are destined to be ultimately implemented as computer
programs. Programming an algorithm presents both a peril and an opportunity.
 A working program provides an additional opportunity in allowing an empirical
analysis of the underlying algorithm. Such an analysis is based on timing the
program on several inputs and then analysing the results obtained.

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Part A:
1. What is mean by problem solving?
2. List down the problem solving techniques?
3. Define algorithm?
4. What are the properties of algorithm?
5. List down the equalities of good algorithm?
6. Define statements?
7. Define state?
8. What is called control flow?
9. What is called sequence execution?
10. Define iteration?
11. What is mean by flow chart?
12. List down the basic symbols for drawing flowchart?
13. List down the rules for drawing the flowchart?
14. What are the advantages of flowchart?
15. What are the disadvantages of flowchart?
16. Define pseudo code?
17. List down the keywords used in writing pseudo code?
18. Mention the advantages of using pseudo code?
19. Mention the disadvantages of using pseudo code?
20. What are the ways available to represent algorithm?
21. Differentiate flowchart and pseudo code?
22. Differentiate algorithm and pseudo code?
23. What is programming language?
24. Mention the types of programming language?
25. What is mean by machine level language?
26. What are the advantages and disadvantages of machine level language?
27. What is high level programming language and mention its advantages?
28. What are the steps in algorithmic problem solving?
29. Write the algorithm for any example?
30. Draw the flow chart for any example?
31. Write pseudo code for any example?
Part B:
1. Explain in detail about problem solving techniques?
2. Explain in detail about building blocks of algorithm?
3. Discuss the symbols and rules for drawing flowchart with the example?
4. Explain in detail about programming language?
5. Discuss briefly about algorithmic problem solving?
6. Write algorithm, pseudo code and flow chart for any example?
7. Explain in detail about simple strategies for developing algorithms?