Engineering Programming

Basic construction
Ahmad Syihan Auzani, PhD

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Contents
• If tests
• Function
• For loops
• While loops
• Reading and writing files
• Exercise

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If test
• Very often in life, and in computer programs, the next action depends on the
outcome of a question starting with “if”.
• This gives the possibility to branch into different types of action depending on
some criterion.
• The test reads if condition, elseif condition, or else, where condition is a
boolean expression that evaluates to true (1) or false (0).
• If condition is true, the following statements up to the next elseif, else, or end
are executed, and the remaining elseif or else branches are skipped.
• If condition is false, the program flow jumps to the next elseif or else branch.

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If test
T = -50 + rand*200; ## generate a random float 0<r<1
fprintf("The water temperature is %d degree celcius \n" ,T);
if (T < 0)
fprintf("The water becomes ice")
elseif (T <100)
fprintf("The water becomes liquid")
else
fprintf("The water becomes vapor")
endif

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If test
T = 21 % assign value to a variable
T == 20 % temperature equal to 20
T ~= 20 % temperature not equal to 20
T < 20 % temperature less than 20
T > 20 % temperature greater than 20
T <= 20 % temperature less than or equal to 20
T >= 20 % temperature greater than or equal to 20

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Functions
• A function in a program is much like a mathematical function e.g. function to
convert currency, temperature, etc
• Purpose:
• to group statements into separate units of code lines that naturally
belong together (a strategy which may dramatically ease the problem
solving process), and/or
• to parameterize a set of statements such that they can be written only
once and easily be re-executed with variations

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Functions

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Functions
• Return → used to enforce a return from a function before it reaches the end

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 Functions

A function may take no arguments,

or many, in which case they are just
listed within the parentheses
(following the function name) and
separated by a comma

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 Functions

Functions are straightforwardly

passed as arguments to other
functions

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Assignment 2
• Create an interactive calculator (any calculator) that use
• Data input
• Function
• If
• Be unique and creative

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For loops
• Loop variable → (start:step:stop)
• See
for i = 3:7
i^2
end

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For loops

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For loops inside for loops

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For loops to calculate sum

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While loops

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Reading / writing files
data = load ("tmp.dat");
x = data(:,1);
y = data(:,2);
data(:,2) = log(y); % insert transformed y back in array
filename = "tmp_out.dat";
outfile = fopen(filename, "w"); % open file for writing
fprintf(outfile, "%% x and y coordinates\n");
fprintf(outfile, "%10.5f %10.5f\n", data);
fclose(outfile);

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Assignment 3
• Develop your previous program with addition of data reading and writing
features
• Be unique and creative

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