Part 7
Expressions
Subjects covered...
Operations: +, -, *, /
Expressions, scientific notation, variable names
You have already seen some of the ways in which the +3 can calculate
with numbers. It can perform the four arithmetic operations '+', '-',
'*' and '/' (remember that '*' is used for multiplication, and '/' is
used for division), and it can find the value of a variable, given its
name.
The example...
LET tax=sum*15/100
...illustrates that calculations can be combined. Such a combination,
like 'sum*15/100', is called an expression - so an expression is just
a short-hand way of telling the +3 to do several calculations, one
after the other. In our example, the expression 'sum*15/100' means
'look up the value of the variable called 'sum', multiply it by 15,
and divide by 100'.
In expressions containing '*', '/', '+', '-', multiplication and
division are carried out first - they have a higher priority than
addition and subtraction. Multiplication and division have the same
priority as each other, which means that they are carried out in
whichever order they appear in the expression (from left to
right). The next operations to be carried out are addition and
subtraction - these again have the same priority as each other and so,
again, are carried out in order from left to right.
Hence in the expression '8-12/4+2*2', the first operation to be
carried out is the division '12/4' which equals 3, so we can then
represent the expression as '8-3+2*2'.
The next operation to be carried out is the multiplication '2*2' which
equals 4, so the expression then becomes '8-3+4'.
Next to be carried out is the subtraction '8-3' which equals 5, so the
expression becomes '5+4'. Finally, the addition is carried out leaving
the result 9.
Try this out for yourself. Type in...
PRINT 8-12/4+2*2
A full list of the priorities of mathematical (and logical) operations
will be found in part 31 of this chapter.
You may, however, change the priority of calculations within an
expression by the use of brackets. Calculations within brackets are
carried out first, so if in the above expression, you required the
addition 4+2 to be carried out first, you would enclose it in
brackets. To see this, type in...
PRINT 8-12/(4+2)*2
...and the result this time is 4 instead of 9.
Expressions are useful because, whenever the +3 is expecting a number
from you, you can give it an expression instead and it will work out
the answer.
You can also add together strings (or string variables) in a single
expression. For example...
10 LET a$="large "
20 LET b$="and puffy"
30 LET c$=a$+b$
40 PRINT c$
We really ought to tell you what you can and cannot use as the names
of variables. As we have already said, the name of a string variable
has to be a single letter followed by '$', and the name of the control
variable in a FOR...NEXT loop must be a single letter; however, the
names of ordinary numeric variables are less restricted - they can use
any letters or digits as long as the first one is a letter. You can
put spaces in as well to make it easier to read, but they won't count
as part of the name. Also, it doesn't make any difference to the name
whether you type it in upper or lower case letters. There are some
restrictions about variable names which are the same as commands,
however. In general, if the variable contains a BASIC keyword in it
(with spaces around it) then it won't be accepted.
Here are some examples of the names of variables that are allowed...
x
any old thing
t42
this name is impractical because it is too long
tobeornottobe
mixed cases spaces
MixEdCAsEsSpAcES
(Note that these last two names ('mixed cases spaces' and
'MixEdCAsEsSpAcES') are considered the same, and refer to the same
variable.)
The following are not allowed as the names of variables...
pi ('PI' is a keyword)
any new thing (contains the separated keyword 'NEW')
42t (begins with a digit)
2001 (contains digits only)
to be or not to be (contains 'TO', 'OR' and 'NOT' as
separated keywords)
3 bears (begins with a digit)
M*A*S*H ('*' is not a letter or a digit)
Lloyd-Webber ('-' is not a letter or a digit)
Numerical expressions can be represented by a number and exponent. Try
the following to prove the point...
PRINT 2.34e0
PRINT 2.34e1
PRINT 2.34e2
...and so on up to...
PRINT 2.34e15
PRINT gives only eight significant digits of a number. Try...
PRINT 4294967295, 4294967295-429e7
This proves that the computer can hold the digits of 4294967295, even
though it is not prepared to display them all at once.
The +3 uses floating point arithmetic, which means that it keeps
separate the digits of a number (its mantissa) and the position of the
point (the exponent). This is not always exact, even for whole
numbers. Type...
PRINT 1e10+1-1e10,1e10-1e10+1
Numbers are held to about nine and a half digits accuracy, so 1e10 is
too big to be held exactly right. The inaccuracy (actually about 2) is
more than 1, so the numbers 1e10 and 1e10+1 appear to the computer to
be equal.
For an even more peculiar example, type...
PRINT 5e9+1-5e9
Here the inaccuracy in 5e9 is only about 1, and the 1 to be added on
in fact gets rounded up to 2. The numbers 5e9+1 and 5e9+2 appear to
the computer to be equal. The largest integer (whole number) that can
be held completely accurately is 4,294,967,294.
The string "" with no character at all is called the empty or null
string. Remember that spaces are significant and an empty string is
not the same as one containing nothing but spaces.
Try...
PRINT "Did you read "The Times" yesterday?"
When you press ENTER you will get the flashing red cursor that shows
there is a mistake somewhere in the line. When the +3 finds the double
quotes at the beginning of the '"The Times"' it imagines that these
mark the end of the string '"Did you read "', and it then can't work
out what 'The Times' means.
There is a special device to get over this - whenever you wish to
write a string quote symbol in the middle of a string, you must write
it twice, like this...
PRINT "Did you read ""The Times"" yesterday?"
As you can see from what is printed on the screen, each double quote
is only really there once - you just have to type it twice to get it
recognised.