Intro

(*to the music of 'silver and gold' by Burl Ives)
Variables and types!,
Variables and types...
What do I mean, when I say variables and types?
Variables and types are important! even to noobs you seeeee.

Concept of Variables

A good way to think of what a variable is, is to think back to pre-algebra when you first learned that you could do math by saying things like:
given x = 3 x + 2 = ? *answer x + 2 = 5
*why? because x + 2 is the same as 3 + 2.
In programming, variables can be more complex than numbers. Here's an example that relates to programming more.
given x = "fish taco" "I like to eat a " + x = ? *answer "I like to eat a fish taco"
We could just as easily made 'x' something else, like "raspberry pie".
given x = "raspberry pie" "I like to eat a " + x = ? *answer "I like to eat a raspberry pie"

Concept of Types

A common English saying is "That's like comparing apples to oranges". We say that when we are trying to express the idea that the two items are not the same and cannot be compared the same way. This is a good analogy for types.
If you have a variable like x and another variable y but x = 24 and y = "steve martin" you cannot mix them. If you do z = x - y you will get an error because the types do not match up. Essentially you are trying to tell the computer to do z = 24 - "steve martin" which doesn't make sense.

Common Types

The following is a list of common types in programming.

Integer - It's a number that doesn't have a fractional part (i.e. 23 is an integer but 23.3 is not)
Floating Point (aka 'float' or 'double') - It's a number that does have a fractional part (like 23.0 or 23.3)
Character - It is a single character (such as 'c' or '?', but not 'c?abcd')
String - It is a string of characters (like "Frederick" or "Seth Codes Things")
Boolean - A true or false value (i.e. the value is either true or false)
Objects - A complex datatype that is made of various combinations of the other types (Will have a post specifically about these later... probably)

Strongly Typed vs Weakly Typed

Two main kinds of programming languages are strongly and weakly typed. Both of them are typed, but they behave differently.
In a strongly typed language (such as C#, C, C++, or Java) types need to be specified when a variable is declared.
The noobs are probably going, "Whoah, woah, woah, back up cow poke. What do you mean declared?". To put it simply for now, declaration is the point in your code where your variable is first created. It usually has some special word in the code like 'var' which is used in Javascript or 'int' (short for integer) in pretty much every strongly typed language in use today. A declaration will usually have a format in code like "int myVariableInteger" or "var myVariable". We'll go more into this on the next post.
Weakly typed is when you don't specify the type at variable declaration.

Hello World

The traditional first program in a programming language is called the 'hello world' program. It's a usual starting point.
Below are a few examples of the traditional 'hello world' program in various languages (to show differences and simlilarities)

C++ hello world


 #include <iostream>

 

 int main()

 {

    std::cout << "Hello World!" << std::endl;

    return 0;

 }

Javascript hello world


 console.log("Hello World");

Python hello world


 print "Hello World!";

Summary

I hope that you have a vague concept of variables and types now.
Next time on Seth Codes Things!
Seth finds out a shocking revelation. Will he be able to bear it? Tune in next time to find out!

P.S. The true meaning of Christmas is that it was initially a pagan holiday called 'yule'. When Christianity took Europe by storm the catholic church decided to make pagan holidays more Christian-like. This is as close as I can get to a historically accurate non-preachy 'true meaning' of Christmas.