GE3151-PROBLEM SOLVING AND PYTHON PROGRAMMING

UNIT III CONTROL FLOW, FUNCTIONS

Conditionals: Boolean values and operators, conditional (if), alternative (if-else),chained
conditional (if-elif- else); Iteration: state, while, for, break, continue, pass; Fruitful functions:
return values, parameters, scope: local and global, composition ,recursion; Strings: string slices,
immutability, string functions and methods, string module; Lists as arrays. Illustrative
programs: square root, gcd, exponentiation, sum the array of\numbers, linear search, binary
search.
3.1 Decision Making
 Decision making constructs begins with a Boolean expression, an expression that returns either
True or False.
 Decision Making structures are necessary to perform an action or a calculation only when a
certain condition is met.
 Zero and null values are assumed as false in python Programming.
 A boolean expression is an expression that is either true or false.
The operator ==, which compares two operands and produces True if they are equal and False otherwise:
>>> 5 == 5
True
>>> 5 == 6
False
True and False are special values that belong to the type bool; they are not strings.

Types of Decision making statements

if statements
if..else statements
elif statements
Nested if..elif..else statements
inline if

Conditional (if):
 Conditional if statements starts with a Boolean expression (condition) followed by a statement or a
group of statements, which evaluates the ‘if’ expression and executes the body of the program only
if the evaluation is TRUE.
 If the Boolean expression (condition) evaluates to FALSE, then the next code after the end of if
statement will be executed.
 Body of if statements were indicated by the indentation.
syntax:

Flowchart:

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Alternative (if-else):
 An if-else statement block first evaluates the ‘if expression’.
 If the test condition is TRUE, Python executes statements in the body of the ‘if statement’.
 If the test condition is FALSE, Python executes the statements in the else block.
syntax:

Flowchart:

Examples:
1. odd or even number
2. positive or negative number
3. leap year or not

odd or even number Output

n=int(input("enter a number")) enter a
if(n%2==0): number 4
print("even even number
number") else:
print("odd number")
positive or negative number Output

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n=int(input("enter a number")) enter a
if(n>=0): number8
print("positive positive
number") else: number
print("negative number")
leap year or not Output
y=int(input("enter a year")) enter a
if(y%4==0): year2000 leap
print("leap year
year") else:
print("not leap year")

Chained conditionals (if-elif-else)

 An elif (else if) statement can be used when there is a need to check or evaluate multiple
expression.
 An if..elif..else structure first checks if the ‘if statement’ is True.
 If it is True, then Python executes the statements in the if block. If it is False, it tests the
condition in the elif block.
 If the elif statement s is evaluated as True, Python executes the statements in the elif block.
 Otherwise control passes to the else block.
syntax

Flowchart

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Examples:
1. student mark system
2. traffic light system

Nested conditionals
 Nested conditional statements are used whenever there is a need to check for another condition
after the first condition has been evaluated as True.
Syntax

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Example:
1. greatest of three numbers

Inline if statements
An inline if statement is a simpler form of if statement and is more convenient, if we need to
perform a simple task.
Syntax:
do Task A if condition is true else do Task B

3.2 Iteration or Control Statements.

state
while
for
break
continue
pass

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

Iterations:

while loop
 While loop is used when we need to repeatedly execute a statement or group statements, while
the test condition is True.
 When the test condition is no longer true, program control passes to the line after the loop.

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Examples:
1. Program to find sum of n numbers
2. Program to find factorial of a number
3. Program to find sum of digits of a number
4. Program to reverse the given number
5. Program to find number is Armstrong number or not
6. Program to check the number is palindrome or not

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For loop
 Executes a sequence of statements that allows a code to be repeated a certain number of times
using the “range” and “xrange” functions.

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 Iterates over a sequence that may have different data types such as list, tuple and string.
 For in loop repeats a given block of codes by specified number of times.

 range()- produces the list iterates of numbers starting with start and generate numbers with
one less than the number end.
 step()- It is the difference between each number in the sequence. It can be both negative and
positive, but not zero.
 If start is not given, the numbers will start from zero. If step is not specified, a list of
consecutive numbers will be generated.

For in sequence
 The for loop in Python is used to iterate over a sequence (list, tuple, string).
 Iterating over a sequence is called traversal.
 Loop continues until we reach the last element in the sequence.
 The body of for loop is separated from the rest of the code using indentation.
Syntax

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Nested Loops
 Nesting is defined as the placing of one loop inside the body of another loop.
 When we nest two loops, the outer loop takes the control of the number of complete repetitions of the
inner loop.
 Can have nested loops for both while and for loops.
Syntax for nested for loop:
for <iterating_variable> in <sequence>:
for <iterating_variable> in <sequence>:
statements

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statements

Syntax for nested while loop:

while(test_expression):
while(test_expression):
statements
statements

Loop Control Structures

break
 Break statements can alter the flow of a loop.
 It terminates the current loop and executes the remaining statement outside the loop.
 If the loop has else statement, that will also get terminated and come out of the loop completely.

continue
 It terminates the current iteration and transfer the control to the next iteration in the loop.

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Pass
 It is used when a statement is required syntactically but you don’t want any code to execute.
 It is a null statement, nothing happens when it is executed.

Difference between break and continue

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else statements in loops
else in for loop:
 If else statement is used in for loop, the else statement is executed when the loop has reached the
limit.
 The statements inside for loop and statements inside else will also execute.

else in while loop:

 If else statement is used within while loop , the else part will be executed when the condition become
false.
 The statements inside for loop and statements inside else will also execute.

Infinite Loop
 A loop becomes infinite loop if a condition never becomes false. This results in a loop that never
ends. Such a loop is called as an infinite loop.
 The infinite loop is formed with the while statement.
 When the specified test condition is always true, we get an infinite loop.

Eg:
while(True):
n=int(input(“ Enter an integer
“)) print(“ The double of “,n,”
is “,2*n)
o/p:
Enter an integer :
3 The double of 3
is 6 Enter an
integer : 5 The
double of 5 is 10
Enter an integer :
6 The double of 6
is 12

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3.3 Fruitful function

 A function that returns a value is called fruitful function.
 A function is a building block of structured, reusable code that is used to carry out a particular,
interconnected action.
 A group of related statements to perform a specific task.
 It can also be termed as subroutines, routines, procedures, methods or subprograms.
 It offers improved modularity for various applications.
 Has an elevated amount of code reusing.
 It enhances the comprehensibility and quality of the program.
 It also lowers the cost for development and maintenance of the software.
 Types of function: 1. Built-in functions 2. User-Defined functions
 Built-in functions- Functions that are built into Python
 User-defined functions- Functions defined by the users themselves.

Defining a Function
 Function blocks start with the keyword def followed by the function name and a pair of parentheses
().
 A function name is used to distinctively identify it.
 A colon (:) is used to spot the end of function header.
 The values are passed to the function with the help of parameters or arguments. Any input parameters
or arguments are to be placed inside these parentheses, not compulsory.
 Documentation string (docstring) is optional.
 The function body consists of one or more valid python statements. Statements should have similar
indentation level (usually 4 spaces).
 A return statement is used to return a value from the function. The statement return [expression]
leaves a function, optionally by passing back an expression to the caller.
 A return statement with no arguments is same as return None.
Syntax:
def function_name(parameters):
statements

Function Call
 A function can be called by simply type the function name with suitable arguments.
 Once a function has been defined, it is feasible to call it from another function.
Syntax:
function_name(parameters)

Return values:
 return keywords are used to return the values from the function.
 A function may or may not return a value.
 If a function does not have a return keyword, it will send None
Syntax:
return [expression] // This statement can contain expression which gets evaluated and the value
is returned.
example:
return(a) – return 1 variable
return (a,b)– return 2 variables
return (a+b)– return expression
return(8)– return value

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Example:
def add():
a=10
b=20
c=a+b
return c
d=add()
print(d)

Void Function
A function that perform action but don’t return any value.
Example:
def add():
a=10
b=20
c=a+b
print(c)
add()

Function Composition:
 Function Composition is the ability to call one function from within another function
 It is a way of combining functions such that the result of each function is passed as the argument of
the next function.
 In other words the output of one function is given as the input of another function is known as
function composition.

3.4 Recursion
 Recursion is the process of calling the same function itself again and again until some condition
is satisfied.
 In order to write a recursive program, the user must satisfy the following:
 The problem must be analyzed and written in recursive form.
 The problem must have the stopping condition.
Syntax:
function1():
function1():

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Advantages of Recursion
 Recursive functions make the code look clean and elegant.
 A larger problem can be broken down into simpler sub-problems using recursion.

Disadvantages of Recursion
 The recursive functions are rigid to debug.
 Recursive calls are exclusive as they acquire up a lot of memory and time

3.5 Strings
 A String is a sequence of characters.
 Strings are identified as a contiguous set of Unicode characters which may consist of letters, numbers,
special symbols or a combination of these types represented within the quotation marks.
 It is an immutable data type, which means it can no longer be able to modify the string once it is
created.
 It permits the use of single(‘),double(“) and triple(’’’ or ”””) quotes to represent a string literal.
Eg: ‘c’,’ Hello World’ , “ Hello World “
 You can access the characters one at a time with the bracket operator:
>>> fruit = 'banana'
>>> letter = fruit[1]
>>> print(letter)
o/p: a
 The second statement selects character number 1 from fruit and assigns it to letter.
 The expression in brackets is called an index. The index indicates which character in the sequence
you want (hence the name).
>>> letter = fruit[1.5]
TypeError: string indices must be integers, not float
 Strings are continous series of characters delimited by single or double quotes.

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Operations on string:
1. Indexing
2. Slicing
3. Concatenation
4. Repetitions
5. Member ship

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string built in functions and methods:

 A method is a function that “belongs to” an object.

Syntax to access the method
Stringname.method()

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a=”happy birthday”
here, a is the string name.

String modules:
 A module is a file containing Python definitions, functions, statements.
 Standard library of Python is extended as modules.
 To use these modules in a program, programmer needs to import the module.
 Once we import a module, we can reference or use to any of its functions or variables in our code.
 There is large number of standard modules also available in python.
 Standard modules can be imported the same way as we import our user-defined modules.

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3.6 Array
 Array is a collection of similar elements.
 Elements in the array can be accessed by index. Index starts with 0. Array can be handled in python
by module named array.
 To create array have to import array module in the program.

Syntax :
import array
Syntax to create array:
Array_name = module_name.function_name(‘datatype’,[elements])

example:
a=array.array(‘i’,[1,2,3,4])
a- array name
array- module name
i- integer datatype

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Convert list into array:

fromlist() function is used to append list to array. Here the list is act like a array.

Syntax:
arrayname.fromlist(list_name)

Methods of an array

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ILLUSTRATIVE PROBLEMS

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