GNG1106

Fundamentals of Engineering Computation

Lecture 4

Instructor: Mohammad Al Ridhawi

University of Ottawa

Winter 2025

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In-Class Exercise: Go To Brightspace

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Outline

1 More on Variable Assignment

2 Logical Expression

3 Decision Structures

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 More on Variable Assignment

Outline

1 More on Variable Assignment

2 Logical Expression

3 Decision Structures

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 More on Variable Assignment

More on Variable Assignment

As a common programming pattern, a modified version of a

variable is assigned to itself. For example:
x=x+3;
Such a pattern relies on the following fact:
The assignment operator = takes the lowest precedence. Thus the
order of computation in this example is:
1 compute the value of x+3 and then
2 assign the result to x.
Thus if prior to this line of code, the value of x is 2, then after this
line, the value of x becomes 5.
If x has been declared as a fixed-point type
the line “x=x+1;” can also be written as “x++;”.
the line “x=x-1;” can also be written as “x--;”.

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 Logical Expression

Outline

1 More on Variable Assignment

2 Logical Expression

3 Decision Structures

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 Logical Expression

Logical Expressions

Expressions involving “equality operators” such as “equal to”,

“relational operators” such as “greater than”, or “logical
operators” such as AND, OR, and NOT are logical expressions.
Like arithmetic expressions, each logical expression is evaluated to
obtain a value: FALSE or TRUE.
The value FALSE is represented by 0 and TRUE represented by 1.
X Y X AND Y X OR Y NOT X
1 1 1 1 0
1 0 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 1
0 0 0 0 1

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 Logical Expression

Equality, Relational and Logical Operators

expression C Operator C expression

x>y > x > y
x<y < x < y
x≥y >= x >= y
x≤y <= x <= y
x=y == x == y
x ̸= y != x!= y
AND && x && y
OR || x || y
NOT ! !x
The operator ! is a unary operator.

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 Logical Expression

Precedence of Operators

() [] . -> left to right

- ! ++ -- (type) sizeof * & right to left(unary operators)
* / % left to right
+ - left to right
< <= > >= left to right
== != left to right
&& left to right
|| left to right
= += -= *= \= %= right to left

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 Logical Expression

Logical Expression Examples

Expression Value
4==6-2 1
3>5 0
3>=5 0
3>5-3 1
3>5-3 && 4!=6 1
3>5-3 && 4==6 0
3>5-3 || 4==6 1

Note
It is very risky (i.e., very bad) using “==” to compare two floating-point
numbers to see if they are equal. Check how this code prints:
float a=1.777777777;
printf("%d\n", a==1.777777777);
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 Decision Structures

Outline

1 More on Variable Assignment

2 Logical Expression

3 Decision Structures

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 Decision Structures

A program is often required to execute different instructions at its

running time (“run time”), which may depend, for example, on the
user’s input or on the computed values of some variables.
The primary mechanism to route the program to different
branches of instructions is via “decision structure”, which contains
three kinds of statements.
if statement
if-else statement
switch statement

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 Decision Structures

if statement
if (S)
DoX;

S is a logical expression, namely, an expression that evaluates to

TRUR (1) or FALSE (0).
“DoX;” can be a single statement, or a block of statements.
If “DoX” is a block of statements, the statements need to be enclosed
by a pair of curly brackets “{ }”. (see picture below).
if (S)
{
Statement1;
Statement2; Indent the “DoX” statement
... or block for better readability!
}
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 Decision Structures

The execution of the if-statement first

checks if expression S is TRUE (1).
If S is true, the program executes
“DoX;”, otherwise it skips “DoX;”.
is S True?
FALSE After executing the if-statement, the
program continues with line
TRUE
immediately after the if-statement.
Execute DoX; There is no semi-colon after “if (S)”.
Including the semi-colon however
passes compiling, since it simply
means: if S is true, do nothing. The
“DoX; ” block is treated as the code
after (not within) the if-statement.

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 Decision Structures

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double x;
printf("Enter a positive value (or a negative number to quit)\n");
scanf("%lf", &x);
if (x>=0)
printf("The square root of %f is %f\n", x, sqrt(x));
return 0;
}

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 Decision Structures

if-else statement

if (S)
DoX;
else
DoY;

S is a logical expression
“DoX;” and “DoY;” can be a single statement, or a block of
statements.
If “DoX” or “DoY;” is a block of statements, the block needs to be
enclosed by a pair of curly brackets “{ }”.
Indent DoX and DoY!

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 Decision Structures

The execution of the

if-else-statement first checks if
FALSE expression S is TRUE (1).
is S True?
If S is true, the program executes
“DoX;”, otherwise it executes
TRUE
“DoY;”.
Execute DoX; Execute DoY; After executing the
if-else-statement, the program
continues with line immediately
after the if-else-statement.
There is no semi-colon after “if
(S)”.

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 Decision Structures

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double x;
printf("Enter a positive value\n");
scanf("%lf", &x);
if (x>=0)
printf("The square root of %f is %f\n", x, sqrt(x));
else
printf("Invalid input!\n");
return 0;
}

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 Decision Structures

Nested if and if-else structures

A program is often required to have a nested if or if-else structure

in order to allow the code to branch along more than two different
paths.
A nested if/if-else structure means that the DoX or DoY block
contains another if or if-else statement.
if (grade >= 90)
printf("You have an A+\n");
else
if (grade >= 85)
printf("You have an A\n");

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 Decision Structures

Indentation is highly recommended in writing nested if/if-else

structures. You may lose marks if you do not!
When an else is followed by an if, a different indentation, as
below, is allowed.
if (grade >= 90)
printf("You have an A+\n");
else if (grade >= 85)
printf("You have an A\n");
else if (grade >= 80)
printf("You have an A-\n");
else if (grade >= 70)
printf("You have a B\n");
...
else
printf("You failed\n");

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 Decision Structures

When using nested if/if-else structure, be very careful with the

designed logic.
The following code has the wrong logic.
if (grade >= 85)
printf("You have an A\n");
else
if (grade >= 90)
printf("You have an
A+\n");

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 Decision Structures

Write a program ...

Find the smaller value in two values entered by user?
Toss a die, let user guess its value and print if the guess is correct.
You are not required to know how to generate a random number
programmatically, but, for the fun of it, here is how you can
generate the outcome (a random number in {1, 2, . . . , 6}) of die
tossing and assign it to an int-typed variable x
srand(time(NULL));
x=rand()%6 + 1;
You will need to include stdlib.h and time.h
Monty Hall Problem?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem
might be tedious with only what we have learned so far

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Decision Structures

Coding Demonstration

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