Pseudocode conventions and definitions

Some examples use ‘pseudocode’ to represent program logic independent of any mainstream programming language. When pseudocode is used, the objective is to understand the algorithm using simplified representations.

The following notations and conventions are used.

1. Symbol names generally follow C++ snake_case conventions

2. A function is a symbol name followed by ()

3. Function arguments, if present, will specify a type and a symbol name. For example: int: x or array: a.

4. The function print() denotes a function that sends its arguments to standard output. Generally, the format of the output is not important.

5. The operator[] is used in the same manner as a C or C++ array. Arrays are zero-based. Array overflow is still possible.

6. Pseudo code operators:

   • ← denotes assignment. The statement x ← y means “assign the value of y to x” You can also read ← as “becomes”, as in “x becomes y”

   • ≡ denotes the equivalence relation. The statement x ≡ y means or “the object x is equivalent to the object y”

   • ⊕ denotes the exclusive or as defined in C++. The statement a ← x ⊕ y means “the bits in the integer x are combined with the bits of y and the result is assigned to a”

   • + denotes numeric addition or concatenation, depending on context. If a statement contains a string and a number, then assume the number is concatenated to the string.

7. Other math and logical operations should be interpreted as they are defined in C++.

8. Loop and conditional constructs are formatted as keyword . . . done keyword, for example:

   while (value < 10)
       print (value)
       value ← value + 1
   done while
   
   if (value ≡ x)
       print (value)
   else
       print (value)
   done if
   

Types without an explicit definition can be assumed as defined on first use or the example should explain the initial value.

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