9/15 Algorithms, Pseudocode, and printf()

Today in class, we learned about:

- Algorithms and pseudo-code. When solving a problem using code, we need steps to solve it, and this list of steps is an algorithm. An example is a morning routine:

function morningRoutine() {
    getOutOfBed();
    while (hair == messy) {
        combHair();
    }
    takeShower();
    eatBreakfast();
    brushTeeth();
    leaveForSchool();
}

Note that this is written in Pseudo-code, which is talked about below:

Pseudo-code is written in the style of code, but won't run properly in an actual IDE. This is a great way to understand the code you're writing and can be a first step in developing an effective algorithm. In the code I wrote above, each "function" within the morningRoutine function is an activity one would normally do to get ready for school. There is no correct way to write pseudo-code, but it's best to write in a style that you and other people will understand later. You can, however, write it in the style of a programming language, and in the example above it looks similar to Javascript.

- System.out.printf()

We learned about System.out.print() and System.out.println() last class, but this week we learned about a new function, printf(). This lets you format the output you want. For example:

System.out.printf("%.2f", Math.pi);

Will print out π to 2 decimal places.

You can find references for the printf() function here: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/data/numberformat.html

When using print functions, special characters are reserved. For example, " is reserved because it is used to tell the compiler that the phrase you want to output is finished. In order to actually output a ", you must use an escape character, \. The backslash itself is a reserved character, which means to print it out, you need to use \\. More escape sequences can be found at https://www.tutorialspoint.com/escape-sequences-in-java.