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Plan Ahead with Pseudocode

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The What and Why of Pseudocode

1:58 with Reggie Williams

Learn what pseudocode is and how it can help you become a better programmer by planning ahead and thinking about the logic of your program before writing any code.

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    [MUSIC] 0:00
    Hi, I'm Reggie Williams. 0:09
    I hope you've enjoyed your learning so far and are prepared to continue your journey. 0:10
    In this workshop, I'll teach you how to write something called pseudocode. 0:14
    Pseudocode will help you plan your projects ahead, communicate your ideas to 0:17
    teammates, and help you identify logical errors before you write any code. 0:20
    Programs contain both logic and syntax. 0:25
    Logic is the order in which the program runs, the decisions made within 0:28
    the program, and how you structure the different parts of the program. 0:31
    Syntax is the actual programming language, the very specific set of words and 0:35
    symbols you write to make the program work. 0:39
    Each language has its own specific syntax. 0:42
    So to create a variable in JavaScript, you write something like this. 0:45
    But in C#, it would look like this. 0:48
    Both lines of code do the same thing, 0:50
    store the value zero into a variable named score. 0:52
    The syntax is different, but the logic is the same in both cases. 0:55
    Thinking through the logic of a program is often the biggest challenge in 0:59
    creating a program. 1:02
    And fortunately, using pseudocode, 1:03
    you can easily lay out your program's logic before coding. 1:05
    Pseudocode is a notation that resembles plain speech to describe the logic of 1:09
    your program. 1:12
    Here's an example of pseudocode that describes a college admissions program. 1:13
    You can see it reads very much like English, no programming syntax required. 1:17
    For example, some lines start with verbs like set, input, and output. 1:21
    These might be the actions or functions in the program. 1:25
    Questions that may lead to different paths or 1:29
    conditions begin with words like else or if. 1:32
    Keep in mind that pseudocode is meant for humans, not computers. 1:35
    It's not real code and won't run on a computer. 1:39
    But it does help you describe how the program will run. 1:41
    Pseudocode can also be used as comments to document your code. 1:44
    One of my favorite practices is writing pseudocode in the text editor as comments 1:48
    and then writing my code directly under each line. 1:51
    In the next video, I'll teach you some of the basics of writing pseudocode. 1:55

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