ITL - Special Notations (Lesson)

Special Notations

Introduction

In using a generic method of coding to allow for students taking various courses in AP Computer Science Principles that taught different coding methods, the arrow, ←, is used to mean that the right-hand side of the equation is evaluated and put into the left-hand side variable.

<- to assign to the left-hand side whatever the right-hand side means; a substitute for the = sign in symbolic coding. >= the left-hand side of the equation is greater than or = to the right-hand side of the equation. <= left-hand side of the equation is less than or = to the right-hand side of the equation.

The code

a     ←    2

a     ← a + 5

means that

  1.     a is first assigned the value 2 in the first statement
  2.     a is assigned the value 2 + 5 or 7 in the second statement.  

Remember, in code the = sign is an assignment sign.  

In this course, the equal sign, = , will continue to be used interchangeably to mean assigns the right-hand value to the left-hand variable for coding.  Interchangeable use of the arrow will be used with the equals in the next problem to indicate that either method of denoting the assignment may be used and is correct in programming.

Let's Practice

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