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Expand your pseudocode vocabulary with some simple conventions for describing loops.
Pseudocode for loops
retrieve student_grades
set grades to student_grades
set grade_total to 0
for each grade in grades
if grade is not a 1, 2, 3, or 4
print "invalid grade"
print grade
print "can't complete calculation"
stop
else add grade to grade_total
endif
endfor
set gpa to grade_total / number of grades
print gpa
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You can describe any programming
concept with pseudo code.
0:00
I'll show you how to describe two
programming control structures, loops and
0:03
functions, using
easy-to-understand language.
0:07
I'll start with loops in this video and
continue with functions in the next.
0:09
If you want to follow along, open the
workspace associated with this video and
0:13
the file named gpa.txt.
0:17
Given a list of student grades,
calculate their GPA.
0:22
The grading scale used should be 1 to 4.
0:24
If any grade isn't a 1, 2, 3, or 4,
print a message and stop the program.
0:27
Say you're creating a GPA calculator
that takes a student's grades and
0:34
determines their overall
grade point average.
0:37
First, we need to get the students grades.
0:40
You might not know exactly how
that's going to be performed.
0:43
Maybe those grades are manually input or
0:46
they're retrieved from a database or
they exist somewhere else.
0:47
The nice thing about pseudo code is that
it can describe just what needs to happen,
0:51
not exactly how.
0:55
When you sit down to program,
you'll need to figure out that part.
0:57
But when you are first working through
the logic, you could just write retrieve
1:00
student_grades to capture what
you'll need to program eventually.
1:04
You also need a variable to store
the total value of the grades,
1:09
set grade_total to 0 does that.
1:12
To get the total value for the grades,
you should add them all up.
1:15
Looping through the collection of
grades one at a time will do the trick.
1:19
So for
each grade in the grades collection,
1:23
the program will add that grade
to the grade_total variable.
1:25
The requirements say we need to check
if the grade is a valid number.
1:29
So I'll add a conditional statement.
1:32
Notice that I've indented the conditional
statement because it's inside the loop.
1:34
I'll also indent again inside
the conditional statement,
1:39
to show these steps take place when
the grade isn't a valid number,
1:41
print out a few messages,
then stop the loop.
1:45
If the grade is valid,
then it's added to the grade_total.
1:47
Once the loop is done,
there's just two more steps.
1:53
Calculate the grade point average
by dividing the grade_total
1:56
by the number of grades,
then print out the gpa.
1:59
This pseudo code seems to match all
of the requirements for the project.
2:03
In reviewing it,
2:06
I realize that this program would
probably work better as a function,
2:07
a collection of programming steps that
you can reuse over and over again.
2:10
In the next video, I'll convert
this example to use a function.
2:14
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