Links to previous chapters
Chapter 0 — Overview : click here
Chapter 1 — Understanding Data : click here
Chapter 2 : Understanding Tools
In previous chapters, we learnt about inputs and outputs in a programming task. In this chapter we are going to focus about various tools that programming languages offer us so that we can use these tools along with the provided input to generate an output.
The three main basic tools are:
- Operators
- Statements
- Loops
These allow us to perform some logical operation on top of the input or any data. The logic depends on the task that we want computer to perform. As with any topic in this course, the tools / concepts are not limited to the above three. There are other advanced tools / concepts that we use in programming such as functions, classes, packages, etc… but these concepts are advanced and we will learn them in advanced cources. For this beginners course, let us stick with the basic tools.
2.1 Operators
In computer science, an operator is a character or characters that determine the action that is to be performed or considered [1], i.e., applying an operator to data will perform an action on it and results in a transformed or modified data. There are 4 types of operators:
