Arithmetic, Logical & Boolean Operators (Cambridge International IGCSE Computer Science)

What is an operator?

• An operator is a symbol used to instruct a computer to perform a specific operation on one or more values

• Examples of common operators include:

  • Arithmetic
  • Logical
  • Boolean

Arithmetic Operators

Spec point — 8.1.1 · "(f) Understand and use arithmetic, logical and Boolean operators"

Arithmetic Operators

• To demonstrate the use of common arithmetic operators, three sample programs written in Python are given below

• Comments have been included to help understand how the arithmetic operators are being used

  • Arithmetic operators #1 - a simple program to calculate if a user entered number is odd or even
  • Arithmetic operators #2 - a simple program to calculate the area of a circle from a user inputted radius
  • Arithmetic operators #3 - a simple program that generates 5 maths questions based on user inputs and gives a score of how many were correctly answered at the end

Logical Operators

Spec point — 8.1.1 · "(f) Understand and use arithmetic, logical and Boolean operators"

Logical Operators

Boolean Operators

Spec point — 8.1.1 · "(f) Understand and use arithmetic, logical and Boolean operators"

Boolean Operators

• A Boolean operators is a logical operator that can be used to compare two or more values and return a Boolean value (True or False) based on the comparison

• There are 3 main Boolean values:

  • AND: Returns True if both conditions are True
  • OR: Returns True if one or both conditions are True
  • NOT: Returns the opposite of the condition (True if False, False if True)

• To demonstrate the use of common Boolean operators, three sample programs written in Python are given below

• Comments have been included to help understand how the Boolean operators are being used

  • Common Boolean operators #1 - a simple program that assigns Boolean values to two variables and outputs basic comparisons
  • Common Boolean operators #2 - a simple program to output a grade based on a users score
  • Common Boolean operators #3 - a simple program reads a text files and searches for an inputted score

Exam Hint

• Boolean operators are often used in conditional statements such as if, while, and for loops
• Boolean operators can be combined with comparison operators
• Be careful when using the NOT operator, as it can sometimes lead to unexpected results
• It is always a good idea to test your code with different inputs to ensure that it works as expected