Programming Made Simple: The Definitive Guide

What is Programming?

The process of building a program that performs a task is called programming. The objective of programming is to build a program by following a set of rules of programming language. Programming can be as simple as adding two numbers. It can also be as complex as reading data from APIs.

In simple terms,

The process of creating a program, software, or application that performs a task is called programming.

Here is video from Codecadem.

What is coding?

Writing meaningful computer code is coding. Writing code in any chosen language for building an application that performs a certain task. Coding is the conversion of code from human language to machine-based language.

In simple terms,

Coding is the conversion of code from human language to machine-based language.

Sounds similar to Programming? Look at the below comparison of coding and programming.

Programming vs coding

Programming	Coding
The complete process of developing applications	Writing code of the application
Includes Debugging, Testing measurement, etc	Just writing codes

Facts about Programming?

I already published a whole article about facts of computer programing but here I want to share some important facts:

• The first-ever programmer on the earth was a woman named Ada Lovelace. 
• The average salary of a computer programmer is $64,261 annually.

• The first programming language was called Fortran, and it was created in the ’50s.
• There are 699 (now 700) different programming languages. 

We have some amazing facts about programming if you are interested go and check it out: Interesting facts about computer programming.

Why programming is important?

Programming is important because as we know everything is changing, Even almost all industries are involved in automation or IT. Here are some of the points I want you to look at.

• High Job demand

Programing or coding has a lot of job potential you can earn a lot of money from it if you learn things right.

• Interact with machines and computers.

Programming is the only way to communicate and tell a computer what to do. (Correct me if wrong)

• Automate tasks

With programming, you can automate almost everything. You can automate server audit, disk cleanup, a lot of amazing stuff you can imagine of.

A bounce point.

• You Can Create Anything You Want

Well, it depends, After learning programing you should able to create “almost” any kind of program or website, for your startup idea (maybe).

Even I created a lot of stuff such as Keysuggest, GenxAdda, and also others, without hiring anyone.

What is Programming Language?

A programming language is a formal language comprising a set of instructions for computers that produce various kinds of output. Programming languages are used in programming to implement algorithms. Most programming languages consist of instructions for computers.

In simple terms,

Programming language is something like a mediator between human-friendly language and the machine code (0 and 1).

Explanation:

As we human talk to each other in languages like English, but computer doesn’t understand English or any other human language.

The computer understands only two numbers 0 and 1, so to instruct the computer you have to tell the instruct computer in their language (The 0 and 1).

Ok, I want to tell the computer to print or display the “Hi” word. (A very simple task).

So the computer language of the above instruction is:

0100100001101001

well, it’s not possible to write binary code directly because it’s hard to write and understand.

That’s where programming language comes in, programming language works as a mediator between human-friendly language and the machine code (0 and 1).

Programming languages list.

There are almost 700 programming languages here are the most popular of them.

• Python
• Java
• JavaScript
• C#
• C/C++
• PHP
• Swift
• R
• Objective-C
• TypeScript
• Kotlin
• Go
• Rust
• Ruby
• Dart
• Perl
• Visual Basic

If you want to know more programming languages feel free to check out: List of programming languages – Wikipedia

How to start programming (Technical guide).

Interpreter or Compiler

Interpreter and computer is a program that converts programming language to machine code (0 and 1).

Variables

Variables are something like a container that contains values in the program. This value should be a string, number, boolean, and all other Data types. We store values in variables for later uses. Variables are made of 3 parts.

The first part is defining Data type, the second is set, assessment operators. then accenting value in the variable.

In the above image, “I love 360teahexplorer” is a string, and the “var” keyword is used for defining variables in Javascript, variable1 is the name of the variable. Equal sing is the assessment operator that moves “I love 360teahexplorer” to variable1 variable.

Data Types

What is Data Type?

Data types are something like labels accessing data in the program. Accessing data types in data is impotent because the interpreter or compiler sees this label and determines what to do with that data.

Types of Data Type.

Here I will only discuss only data types that are widely used and most common in programming languages.

Integer

INTEGER data type stores numbers. The number is a reserved value and cannot be used. Arithmetic operations and sort comparisons are performed more efficiently on integer data than on float or decimal data.

Example:

Javascript:

var variable1 = 360;

Python:

variable1 = 360

C:

int variable1 = 360;

C++:

int variable1 = 360;

Java:

int variable1 = 360;

Character

Character or more likely to say “CHAR” data type stores character data in a fixed-length. Data can be a string of single-byte or multibyte letters, numbers, and other characters that are supported by the code set of your database locale.

Example:

Javascript:

var variable1 = 'A';

Python:

variable1 = 'A'

C:

char variable1 = 'A';

C++:

char variable1 = 'A';

Java:

char variable1 = 'A';

Boolean

The Boolean data type is a data type that has one of two possible values (usually denoted true and false) which is intended to represent the two truth values of logic and Boolean algebra.

Example:

Javascript:

var variable1 = true;

Python:

variable1 = true

C:

bool variable1 = true;

C++:

bool variable1 = true;

Java:

boolean variable1 = true;

There is a lot of other data types in programming languages.

Note: Data depends on your language maybe your chosen language has a lot of other data types for example Java has String data type but C/C++ doesn’t have.

Conditionals

What are Conditionals statements?

Conditionals statements are the statements or functions that control the flow of the program. For example, you want to print “logged in” for all logged-in users and “logged out” for all non-login users. In this case, you use a conditional statement to control that part of the program gets executed.

Types of Conditionals statements.

The two most common conditional statements are IF-ELSE and SWITCH.

IF-ELSE Conditionals statements.

The If-else statement executes a block of code if a specified condition is true. If the condition is false, else block of code can be executed.

Example:

Javascript:

if( isUserLoggedIn === true ){
	console.log("logged in")
} else {
	console.log("logged out")
}

I share only Javascript code because I don’t want to mess up things you can easily found code in any language.

SWITCH Conditionals statements.

The switch statement is a type of selection control mechanism used to allow the value of a variable or expression to change the control flow of program execution via search and map.

Example:

Javascript:

switch( isUserLoggedIn ) {
  case true:
    	console.log("logged in")
    	break;
  case false:
    	console.log("logged out")
    	break;
  default:
  	console.log("logged in")
}

I share only Javascript code because I don’t want to mess up things you can easily found code in any language.

Loops

What are loops in programming?

The loops are used for repeating things over and over aging without writing more same code. Loop is a programming structure that repeats a sequence of instructions until a specific condition is met. 

Types of loops in programming?

The three most common loop statements are:

• For loops
• While loops
• Do-while loops

Functions

Functions are “self-contained” modules or blocks of a program that perform a certain task. Functions usually “take in” data, process it, and “return” a result. Once a function is written, it can be used over and over and over again. Functions can be “called” from the inside of other functions.

Every programming language has its own rules of defining functions.

Write “Hello World” Program 

Note, if you are new to programming then you hear ‘Hello world program” very often and you may think what is hello world.

Let me break it down in simple words,

What is the hello world program?

Hello world program is simply a program that prints “Hello world” on the screen or console. So might think why it is used very often, it’s because printing something to screen is the most simple and used task. It’s kind of a funny convention of coding.

OK, no more boring definitions jump into actual coding.

Code “Hello world” program.

To print something on the screen every language has its unique function. 

Javascript:

console.log("Hello world");

Python:

print("Hello world)

C:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    printf("hello, worldn");
}

C++:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "Hello, world!n";
    return 0;
}

Java:

class HelloWorldApp {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello World!");
    }
}

Learning resources for competitive programming.

Some of the most voted and popular competitive programmings are:

• HackerEarth
• CodeChef
• TopCoder
• GeeksforGeeks

Pro tip: try all of them to choose that you like.

General FAQ about Programming.

What is programming?

The process of building a program that performs a task is called programming. The objective of programming is to build a program by following a set of rules of programming language. Programming can be as simple as adding two numbers. It can also be as complex as reading data from APIs.

What is object oriented programming?

Object-Oriented Programming (or OOP) is a programming paradigm that relies on the concept of classes and objects. It is used to structure a software program into simple, reusable pieces of code blueprints (usually called classes), which are used to create individual instances of objects.

Is HTML a programming language?

No, It’s not a programming language instead it’s a markup language. HTML, as a markup language, doesn’t really “do” anything in the sense that a programming language does. HTML contains no programming logic.

What programming language should I learn?

It depends, on what you wanted to be. For example, if you are interested in ML or AI, R or Python is a good choice, If you are interested in website development, Javascript is a good choice. I highly recommend do your research and find out what’s good for you.

I personally love Javascript.

What is functional programming?

Functional programming is a programming paradigm in which we try to bind everything in a pure functions style. It is a declarative type of programming style. It uses expressions instead of statements. An expression is evaluated to produce a value whereas a statement is executed to assign variables. 

What is programming language?

A programming language is a formal language comprising a set of instructions for computers that produce various kinds of output. Programming languages are used in programming to implement algorithms. Most programming languages consist of instructions for computers.

What is dynamic programming?

Dynamic programming is both a mathematical optimization method and a computer programming method. The method was developed by Richard Bellman in the 1950s and has found applications in numerous fields, from aerospace engineering to economics.

How many programming languages are there?

Wikipedia claims there are approximately 700 programming languages, while others say that number is closer to 9000! The truth is, there’ve been countless programming languages created throughout history. But like spoken languages, there’s a hierarchy of programming languages based on their prevalence and usage.

Is CSS a programming language?

No, It’s not a programming language instead it’s a stylesheet language. CSS, as a stylesheet language, doesn’t really “do” anything in the sense that a programming language does. HTML contains no programming logic.

General programming or coding terms.

Algorithm

An algorithm is a step procedure to solve logical problems. A recipe is a good example of an algorithm because it says what must be done, step by step. For computing, algorithms are written in pseudocode, flow charts, or programming languages.

Program

A computer program also knows as an application or software is a collection of instructions that can be executed by a computer to perform a specific task. A computer program is usually written by a computer programmer in a programming language.

API

API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.

Argument

Argument or arg is a value that is passed into a command or a function. For example, if SQR is a function that returns the square of a number, then SQR(4) will return 16. Here, value 4 is the argument. Similarly, if the edit is a function that edits a file, then in edit myfile.txt, ‘myfile.txt’ is the argument.

ASCII

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interexchange) is a standard that assigns letters, numbers, and other characters different slots, available in the 8-bit code. The total number of slots available is 256. The ASCII decimal number is derived from binary, which is assigned to each letter, number, and character.

Boolean

A Boolean expression or Boolean logic is TRUE and FALSE values. Boolean expressions use AND, OR, XOR, NOT, and NOR operators with conditional statements in programming, search engines, algorithms, and formulas.

Bug

A bug is an error in the code that causes a program to produce unexpected results or crash altogether. Computer bugs can affect an application’s performance, so developers need to make sure they are corrected before the software gets sold to customers.

Objects

In the object-oriented programming paradigm, the object can be a combination of variables, functions, and data structures; in particular, in class-based variations of the paradigm, it refers to a particular instance of a class.

Class

A class is written by a programmer in a defined structure to create an object (computer science) in an object oriented programming language. It defines a set of properties and methods that are common to all objects of one type.

Iteration

The repeated execution of some groups of code statements in a program is called iteration. Loops are tools provided by programming languages to implement iteration. Generally. We use two different types of loops: for loop and while loop.

Null

A character that is all 0 bits. Also written as “NULL” it is the first character in the ASCII and EBCDIC data codes. In hex, it displays and prints as 00; in decimal, it may appear as a single zero in a chart of codes, but displays and prints as a blank space.

Operator

In computer programming, operators are constructs defined within programming languages that behave generally like functions, but which differ syntactically or semantically. Common simple examples include arithmetic, comparison, and logical operations.

Pointer

A pointer is an object in many programming languages that stores a memory address. A pointer references a location in memory, and obtaining the value stored at that location is known as dereferencing the pointer.

Runtime

Runtime is the period of time when a program is running. It begins when a program is opened (or executed) and ends with the program is quit or closed. Runtime is a technical term, used most often in software development.

Token

A token is the smallest individual unit in a program, often referring to a portion of a much larger data piece. For example, if a person’s name is John Thomas Wood, it can be broken into tokens; ‘John’, ‘Thomas’ and ‘Wood’.

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