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CSC 151 - Algorithm building blocks

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An algorithm is a set of instructions to accomplish a problem. As you might expect, the way we express an algorithm depends, in large part, on the audience for the algorithm. Consider the problem of making a set of chocolate chip cookies. For a beginning cook, we would have to carefully explain what it means to sift flour, the steps involved in creaming together butter and sugar, how to determine whether a cookie is done, and such. For an intermediate cook, we might not need to provide those details, but we would likely need to give an order in which ingredients are combined. For an expert cook, we might only list the ingredients and the recommended oven temperature and could assume that they would be able to figure out the rest. Despite the wide variety of audiences and kinds of algorithms, you will find that there are a few basic “building blocks” that you will use as you construct algorithms, whether in a natural language or in a programming language. As you learn a new programming

CSC 151 - Algorithm building blocks Algorithm building blocks Due Wednesday, 3 September 2025 --> Summary We consider the structures you will use as you build algorithms. Introduction An algorithm is a set of instructions to accomplish a problem. As you might expect, the way we express an algorithm depends, in large part, on the audience for the algorithm. Consider the problem of making a set of chocolate chip cookies. For a beginning cook, we would have to carefully explain what it means to sift flour, the steps involved in creaming together butter and sugar, how to determine whether a cookie

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