ALGORTIHM, FLOWCHARTS AND

PSEUDOCODE
PREPARED BY:
JERRY B. AGSUNOD, MIT
ALGORITHM
• THE WORD “ALGORITHM” RELATES TO THE NAME OF THE
MATHEMATICIAN AL-KHOWARIZMI, WHICH MEANS A PROCEDURE OR
A TECHNIQUE.
• SOFTWARE ENGINEER COMMONLY USES AN ALGORITHM FOR
PLANNING AND SOLVING THE PROBLEMS.
• AN ALGORITHM IS A SEQUENCE OF STEPS TO SOLVE A PARTICULAR
PROBLEM OR ALGORITHM IS AN ORDERED SET OF UNAMBIGUOUS
STEPS THAT PRODUCES A RESULT AND TERMINATES IN A FINITE TIME
CHARACTERISTICS OF ALGORITHM
• INPUT
• AN ALGORITHM MAY OR MAY NOT REQUIRE INPUT

• OUTPUT
• EACH ALGORITHM IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE AT LEAST ONE RESULT

• DEFINITENESS
• EACH INSTRUCTION MUST BE CLEAR AND UNAMBIGUOUS.

• FINITENESS
• IF THE INSTRUCTIONS OF AN ALGORITHM ARE EXECUTED, THE ALGORITHM SHOULD
TERMINATE AFTER FINITE NUMBER OF STEPS
THE ALGORITHM AND FLOWCHART INCLUDE THE
FOLLOWING THREE TYPES OF CONTROL STRUCTURES.
1. SEQUENCE
• IN THE SEQUENCE STRUCTURE, STATEMENTS ARE PLACED ONE AFTER THE OTHER AND THE
EXECUTION TAKES PLACE STARTING FROM UP TO DOWN.

2. BRANCHING (SELECTION)
• IN BRANCH CONTROL, THERE IS A CONDITION AND ACCORDING TO A CONDITION, A DECISION OF
EITHER TRUE OR FALSE IS ACHIEVED. IN THE CASE OF TRUE, ONE OF THE TWO BRANCHES IS
EXPLORED; BUT IN THE CASE OF FALSE CONDITION, THE OTHER ALTERNATIVE IS TAKEN. GENERALLY,
THE ‘IF-THEN’ IS USED TO REPRESENT BRANCH CONTROL.

3. LOOP (REPETITION)
• THE LOOP OR REPETITION ALLOWS A STATEMENT(S) TO BE EXECUTED REPEATEDLY BASED ON
CERTAIN LOOP CONDITION E.G. WHILE, FOR LOOPS.
ADVANTAGES OF ALGORITHM
1. IT IS A STEP-WISE REPRESENTATION OF A SOLUTION TO A GIVEN
PROBLEM, WHICH MAKES IT EASY TO UNDERSTAND.
2. AN ALGORITHM USES A DEFINITE PROCEDURE.
3. IT IS NOT DEPENDENT ON ANY PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE, SO
IT IS EASY TO UNDERSTAND FOR ANYONE EVEN WITHOUT
PROGRAMMING KNOWLEDGE.
4. EVERY STEP IN AN ALGORITHM HAS ITS OWN LOGICAL
SEQUENCE SO IT IS EASY TO DEBUG.
HOW TO WRITE ALGORITHMS:
STEP 1 DEFINE YOUR ALGORITHMS INPUT
• MANY ALGORITHMS TAKE IN DATA TO BE PROCESSED

STEP 2 DEFINE THE VARIABLES

• ALGORITHM'S VARIABLES ALLOW YOU TO USE IT FOR MORE THAN ONE PLACE.

STEP 3 OUTLINE THE ALGORITHM'S OPERATIONS

• USE INPUT VARIABLE FOR COMPUTATION PURPOSE

STEP 4 OUTPUT THE RESULTS OF YOUR ALGORITHM'S OPERATIONS

• IN CASE OF AREA OF RECTANGLE OUTPUT WILL BE THE VALUE STORED IN VARIABLE AREA
ALGORITHM TO FIND THE SUM OF TWO NUMBERS
ALGORITHM
STEP-1 START
STEP-2 INPUT FIRST NUMBERS SAY A
STEP-3 INPUT SECOND NUMBER SAY B
STEP-4 SUM = A + B
STEP-5 DISPLAY SUM
STEP-6 STOP
ALGORITHM
STEP-1 START
STEP-2 INPUT TWO NUMBERS SAY A & B
STEP-3 SUM = A + B
STEP-4 DISPLAY SUM
STEP-5 STOP
 ALGORITHM TO CONVERT TEMPERATURE FROM
CELSIUS TO FAHRENHEIT
C : TEMPERATURE IN CELSIUS F : TEMPERATURE FAHRENHEIT
ALGORITHM
STEP-1 START
STEP-2 INPUT TEMPERATURE IN CELSIUS SAY C
STEP-3 F = (9.0/5.0 X C) + 32
STEP-4 DISPLAY TEMPERATURE IN FAHRENHEIT F
STEP-5 STOP
 ALGORITHM TO CONVERT TEMPERATURE FROM
FAHRENHEIT TO CELSIUS
C : TEMPERATURE IN CELSIUS F : TEMPERATURE FAHRENHEIT
ALGORITHM
STEP-1 START
STEP-2 INPUT TEMPERATURE IN FAHRENHEIT SAY F
STEP-3 C = 5.0/9.0 (F - 32 )
STEP-4 DISPLAY TEMPERATURE IN CELSIUS C
STEP-5 STOP
 ALGORITHM TO FIND AREA AND PERIMETER OF
SQUARE
L : SIDE LENGTH OF SQUARE AREA : AREA OF SQUARE
PERIMETER : PERIMETER OF SQUARE
ALGORITHM
STEP-1 START
STEP-2 INPUT SIDE LENGTH OF SQUARE SAY L
STEP-3 AREA = L X L
STEP-4 PERIMETER = 4 X L
STEP-5 DISPLAY AREA, PERIMETER
STEP-6 STOP
 ALGORITHM TO FIND AREA AND PERIMETER OF
RECTANGLE
L : LENGTH OF RECTANGLE, B : BREADTH OF RECTANGLE,
AREA : AREA OF RECTANGLE, PERIMETER : PERIMETER OF RECTANGLE
ALGORITHM
STEP-1 START
STEP-2 INPUT SIDE LENGTH & BREADTH SAY L, B
STEP-3 AREA = L X B
STEP-4 PERIMETER = 2 X ( L + B)
STEP-5 DISPLAY AREA, PERIMETER
STEP-6 STOP
 ALGORITHM TO FIND AREA & PERIMETER OF
TRIANGLE (WHEN THREE SIDES ARE GIVEN)
A : FIRST SIDE OF TRIANGLE, B : SECOND SIDE OF TRIANGLE, C : THIRD SIDE OF
TRIANGLE, AREA : AREA OF TRIANGLE, PERIMETER : PERIMETER OF TRIANGLE
ALGORITHM
STEP-1 START
STEP-2 INPUT SIDES OF TRIANGLE A,B,C
STEP-3 S= (A + B + C)/ 2.0
STEP-4 AREA = SQRT(S X (S-A) X (S-B) X(S-C))
STEP-5 PERIMETER = S1 + S2 + S3
STEP-6 DISPLAY AREA, PERIMETER
STEP-7 STOP
 ALGORITHM TO FIND SIMPLE INTEREST
P : PRINCIPLE AMOUNT, N : TIME IN YEARS, R : % ANNUAL RATE OF
INTEREST, SI : SIMPLE INTEREST
ALGORITHM
STEP-1 START
STEP-2 INPUT VALUE OF P, N, R
STEP-3 SI = (P X N X R)/100.0
STEP-4 DISPLAY SI F
STEP-6 STOP
PROBLEM: WRITE AN ALGORITHM TO DETERMINE A STUDENT’S FINAL
GRADE AND INDICATE WHETHER IT IS PASSING OR FAILING. THE
FINAL GRADE IS CALCULATED AS THE AVERAGE OF FOUR MARKS.
DETAILED ALGORITHM
STEP 1: INPUT M1,M2,M3,M4
STEP 2: GRADE  (M1+M2+M3+M4)/4
STEP 3: IF (GRADE < 50) THEN
PRINT “FAILED”
ELSE
PRINT “PASSED”
ENDIF
 WRITE AN ALGORITHM THAT READS TWO VALUES,
DETERMINE THE LARGEST VALUE AND PRINTS THE LARGEST
VALUE WITH AN IDENTIFYING MESSAGE “THE LARGEST
VALUE IS”.
ALGORITHM
STEP 1: INPUT VALUE1, VALUE2
STEP 2: IF (VALUE1 > VALUE2) THEN
MAX  VALUE1
ELSE
MAX  VALUE2
ENDIF
STEP 3: PRINT “THE LARGEST VALUE IS”, MAX
FLOWCHART
• IS DIAGRAMMATIC /GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF
SEQUENCE OF STEPS TO SOLVE A PROBLEM.
• BLUEPRINT OF A DESIGN USED FOR SOLVING A SPECIFIC PROBLEM.
• THE FIRST DESIGN OF FLOWCHART GOES BACK TO 1945
• DESIGNED BY JOHN VON NEUMANN
• USES DIFFERENT SYMBOLS TO DESIGN A SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM
• COMMONLY USED PROGRAMMING TOOL
• THE OPERATIONS AND SEQUENCE OF OPERATIONS PERFORMED IN A
SYSTEM.
ADVANTAGES OF FLOWCHART
• IS AN EXCELLENT WAY OF COMMUNICATING THE LOGIC OF A PROGRAM.
• EASY AND EFFICIENT TO ANALYZE PROBLEM USING FLOWCHART.
• DURING PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT CYCLE, THE FLOWCHART PLAYS THE ROLE
OF A BLUEPRINT, WHICH MAKES PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS EASIER.
• AFTER SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF A PROGRAM, IT NEEDS CONTINUOUS
TIMELY MAINTENANCE DURING THE COURSE OF ITS OPERATION. THE
FLOWCHART MAKES PROGRAM OR SYSTEM MAINTENANCE EASIER.
• IT IS EASY TO CONVERT THE FLOWCHART INTO ANY PROGRAMMING
LANGUAGE CODE.
FLOWCHART:
•IS DIAGRAMMATIC /GRAPHICAL
REPRESENTATION OF SEQUENCE OF STEPS TO
SOLVE A PROBLEM.
•TO DRAW A FLOWCHART, STANDARD
SYMBOLS ARE USE
SYMBOL PURPOSE/FUNCTION MEANING/DESCRIPTION
Flow Line Used to indicate the flow of logic
by connecting symbols.
Terminal(Stop/Start)/Oval Used to represent start and end of
flowchart.
Parallelogram/Input/Output Used for input and output
operation.
Rectangle/Processing Used for airthmetic operations and
data-manipulations.
Diamond/Decision Used to represent the operation in
which there are two alternatives,
true and false.
On-page Connector Used to join different flowline

Off-page Connector Used to connect flowchart portion

on different page.
Predefined Process/Function Used to represent a group of
statements performing one
processing task.
ALGORITHM AND FLOWCHART TO FIND THE SUM OF TWO NUMBERS
OR:
CONVERT TEMPERATURE FROM CELSIUS TO FAHRENHEIT:
CONVERT TEMPERATURE FROM FAHRENHEIT TO CELSIUS:
FIND THE AREA AND PERIMETER OF A SQUARE:
PROBLEM: WRITE AN ALGORITHM AND DRAW A FLOWCHART TO DETERMINE A
STUDENT’S FINAL GRADE AND INDICATE WHETHER IT IS PASSING OR FAILING.
THE FINAL GRADE IS CALCULATED AS THE AVERAGE OF FOUR MARKS.
START
DETAILED ALGORITHM
Input
STEP 1: INPUT M1,M2,M3,M4 M1,M2,M3,M4

STEP 2: GRADE  (M1+M2+M3+M4)/4

STEP 3: IF (GRADE < 50) THEN GRADE(M1+M2+M3+M4)/4

PRINT “FAILED”
N Y
ELSE IS
GRADE<5
0
PRINT “PASSED”
ENDIF PRINT
“PASS”
PRINT
“FAIL”

STOP