2.4 Scr0140: arithmetic operators  (Page 2/7)

x + y

Assuming that x and y are numeric variables, this expression produces the sum of the values stored in the variables named x and y . The variable x would be called the left operand and the variable y would be called the right operand .

Expressions

Computer programs in many languages consist of statements, which in turn, consist of expressions. (Programming blocks substitute for statements in Scratch.)

Expressions An expression is a specific combination of operators and operands that evaluates to a particular result. The operands can bevariables, literals, or method calls. (Note that Scratch doesn't support methods.)

In your past experience, you may have referred to expressions by the names formulas or equations . Although formulas and equations are not exactly the same thing as expressions, they are close enough to help youunderstand what expressions are and how they are used.

Statements

A statement is a specific combination of expressions. The following is an example of a statement comprised of expressions in a text-based language such as Java, C++,or C#.

z = x + y;

Operationally, values are retrieved from the variables named x and y in the above statement. These two values are added together. The result is stored in (assigned to) the variable named z , replacing whatever value may previously have been contained in that variable.

The plus character (+) would commonly be referred to as the addition operator or the concatenation operator, depending on the type of data stored in the variables named x and y . The equal character (=) would commonly be called the assignment operator in Java, Alice, C#, and C++, but wewill see in a future module that it is also used as a relational operator in Scratch.

A brief word about type

As a very crude analogy, you can think of variables as the pens at the animal shelter and think of type as the kinds of animals that reside in those pens. Dogs and cats aredifferent types of animals that usually don't coexist very well in the same pen. Therefore, they are normally put in different pens.

Similarly, different types of data don't coexist well in the same variable in type-sensitive languages. Therefore, in type-sensitive languages, there are very stringent rules as to the types of data that can be stored in each variable.

Scratch has two types of data that can be stored in a variable (numeric and string) . However, Scratch is not a type-sensitive language so type is not an issue in Scratch. (Scratch also has a semblance of a boolean type but it tends to take care of itself.)

Unary, binary, and ternary operators

Many programming languages provide operators that can be used to perform an action on one, two, or three operands. I believe that operators in Scratchare confined to only one or two operands.

An operator that operates on one operand is called a unary operator. An operator that operates on two operands is called a binary operator. An operator that operates on three operands is called a ternary operator.

Some operators can be either unary or binary

Some operators can behave either as a unary or as a binary operator in languages such as Java and C#. However, I don't believe that this is the case in Scratch.The best-known operator that can behave either way in those other languages is the minus character (-).