Guide on Computational Thinking

Keywords

• Abstraction Model that removes unecessary details
• Data Abstraction A simplified representation of the underlying data. Very common is abstract data structures
• Caching Temporary storage of instructions/data that may be needed shortly in the future
• Procedural Creating instructions without knowing the exact details of the inputs(type/structures/etc of inputs may apply)
• Problem Decomposition Breaking problems down into smaller simpler problems
• Preconditions A condition required for an input to be valid
• Hierarchy chart A chart that shows the relationship between various modules. It shows the relationship between modules (or functions).

Thinking ahead

A rough model of computational problems:

1. Input
2. Procedure(The problem)
3. Output

Preconditions are specific rules the input must follow

For example:
• Input must be a real number
• Length of list must be above 0

Advantages of preconditions:
1. The user knows what checks they must do to the data before putting inputs in
2. Clear documentation of preconditions and other things means a procedure can be stored 'for later'. Many programmers do this and there are massive libraries of functions and subroutines.

Abstract Data Types

• Queues
• Stacks
• Trees:
  • Binary Trees
  • Binary search trees

A very very very very very very very cool example of a hierarchy chart