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Max Rees (they/them)

Lecturer, Department of Computer Science

Purdue University

Email: first initial + C + last initial AT purdue DOT edu
Office: HAAS G24

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Fall 2023 — CS 15900

My lectures: view lecture schedule in the table below

My office hours: check Brightspace announcements for cancellations

TA office hours: check Brightspace announcements for room changes / cancellations

Chapter 1 lectures by William Crum:

Week 1
Mon 21 Aug Tue 22 Aug Wed 23 Aug Thu 24 Aug Fri 25 Aug Sat 26 Aug Sun 27 Aug
Lecture 1 (48:47) Lecture 2 (48:57)
No Lecture Quiz Lecture Quiz Demo
Slides No notes Slides p. 31 – 35
Overview of the class; course policies; motivations. Chapter 2. C program structure and syntax; comments; identifiers.
Complete Lab 0 + take Lab Quiz 0
Week 2
Mon 28 Aug Tue 29 Aug Wed 30 Aug Thu 31 Aug Fri 01 Sep Sat 02 Sep Sun 03 Sep
Lecture 3 (50:24) Lecture 4 (48:38)
Lecture Quiz 1 Lecture Quiz 2
Slides p. 35 – 37 Slides p. 37 – 42
Chapter 2 continued. Data types: int family, including short, long, and long long. Character data type (char) and ASCII table; boolean data type (bool); floating-point data types (float, double, long double); variables: declaration, definition, and initialization; uninitialized variables and undefined behavior; constants: literal constants, symbolic/defined constants, memory constants. Chapter 2 continued. Formatted input/output: printf format string and data list; format string placeholders: code, size, precision, (minimum) width, and flag; variations of the minimum width modifier for printf() placeholders; usage of scanf() for user input.
Start Homework 1
Start Lab 1 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 1
Week 3
Mon 04 Sep Tue 05 Sep Wed 06 Sep Thu 07 Sep Fri 08 Sep Sat 09 Sep Sun 10 Sep
No classes or office hours
(Labor Day)		 Lecture 5 (50:51) Lecture 6 (50:19)
Lecture Quiz 3 Lecture Quiz 4
Slides p. 42 – 46 Slides p. 46 – 49
Chapter 2 continued. Types of errors: compile-time errors (including syntax errors and the difference between gcc's "errors" and "warnings"), and run-time errors (including crashes such as segmentation faults and floating point exceptions, and logical errors); debugging with diagnostic printf() statements.

Chapter 3. Expressions; operators; operands; operator precedence; simple and compound assignments.		 Chapter 3 continued. Prefix and postfix increment and decrement; side effects and sequence points; undefined behavior; single data type and mixed data type expressions; implicit data type conversions (safe) and hierarchy of data types by relative size; explicit data type conversions (can be unsafe) using "type casting" operators; rounding versus truncation with regards to floor(), (int) casts, and printf() precision modifiers.
Homework 1 due 11:00 PM Start Homework 2
Lab 1 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 2 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 2
Week 4
Mon 11 Sep Tue 12 Sep Wed 13 Sep Thu 14 Sep Fri 15 Sep Sat 16 Sep Sun 17 Sep
Lecture 7 (48:30) Lecture 8 (48:26)
Lecture Quiz 5 Lecture Quiz 6
Slides p. 50 – 52 Slides p. 53 – 56
Chapter 3 continued. Assignment data type conversions (can be unsafe); immutability of object data types; what causes the value of a variable to change (simple or compound assignment operators, scanf(), or prefix/postfix increment/decrement operators); selection by calculation with examples, including the "scaling to zero or one" formula. Chapter 4. Purpose of functions; function factoring; functional cohesion; calling function and called function; parameters; return values; function declarations, calls, and definitions; void functions; functions with no parameters and no return value (static output).
Lab 2 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 3 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 3
Week 5
Mon 18 Sep Tue 19 Sep Wed 20 Sep Thu 21 Sep Fri 22 Sep Sat 23 Sep Sun 24 Sep
Lecture 9 (48:14) Lecture 10 (48:22)
Lecture Quiz 7 Lecture Quiz 8
Slides p. 57 – 64 Slides p. 64 – 68
Chapter 4 continued. Functions with no parameters that return a value (input); functions with parameters that return a value (calculation); functions with parameters and no return value (dynamic output); differences between function declarations, calls, and definitions; acceptable main() functions. Chapter 4 continued. Parameter passing: pass-by-value and pass-by-address; address operator & and dereferencing operator *; pointers and pointer types; swapping the value of two variables.
Homework 2 due 11:00 PM Start Homework 3
Lab 3 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 4 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 4
Week 6
Mon 25 Sep Tue 26 Sep Wed 27 Sep Thu 28 Sep Fri 29 Sep Sat 30 Sep Sun 01 Oct
Lecture 11 (46:27) Lecture 12 (47:14)
Lecture Quiz 9 Lecture Quiz 10
Slides p. 68 – 72 Slides p. 72 – 76
Chapter 4 continued. Final thoughts on scope (local and global, for variables and functions respectively); structure charts: format, rules, good and bad examples; recommended problem-solving method (specify, analyze, design, code, test and debug, refine); overview of the current position in the class's content: just finished sequence with chapter 4; next is selection in chapter 5; then repetition in chapter 6. Chapter 5. Logical data (true or false); logical expressions; C convention for true and false values ("truthiness"); logical operators: NOT (!), AND (&&), OR (||); truth tables; short-circuiting; simple examples of logical NOT, AND, and OR; examples of short-circuiting with side effects; relational operators (< <= > >=) and equality operators (== !=); compound statements.
Lab 4 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 5 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 5
Week 7
Mon 02 Oct Tue 03 Oct Wed 04 Oct Thu 05 Oct Fri 06 Oct Sat 07 Oct Sun 08 Oct
Lecture 13 (50:53) Lecture 14 (48:59)
Lecture Quiz 11 Lecture Quiz 12
Slides p. 76 – 78, 80 – 81 Slides p. 81 – 86 No office hours (Fall Break)
Chapter 5 continued. Logical complements and examples thereof; two-way selection using the if/else construct. Chapter 5 continued. More examples of if/else; nested selection with if/else; "dangling else" logical error; two-way selection using the conditional expression (also known as the ternary conditional operator); multi-way selection using if/else if/else.
Homework 3 due 11:00 PM Start Homework 4
Lab 5 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 6 + take Lab Quiz 6
Week 8
Mon 09 Oct Tue 10 Oct Wed 11 Oct Thu 12 Oct Fri 13 Oct Sat 14 Oct Sun 15 Oct
Lecture 15 (47:48)
Lecture Quiz 13
Slides p. 87 – 89
No classes or office hours (Fall Break) Chapter 5 continued. Final thoughts on if/else if/else; switch construct: case labels and break statements; "fall-through" behavior of switch; comparing floating-point values for equality.
Lab 6 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 7 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 7
Midterm 1: 08:00 – 09:00 PM, Hall of Music
Week 9
Mon 16 Oct Tue 17 Oct Wed 18 Oct Thu 19 Oct Fri 20 Oct Sat 21 Oct Sun 22 Oct
Lecture 16 (51:21) Lecture 17 (49:29)
Lecture Quiz 14 Lecture Quiz 15
Slides p. 90 – 92, 95 – 96, 98 Slides p. 98, 97, 99 – 103
Chapter 5 continued. C language rules for switch; when and how to use switch.

Chapter 6. Repetition using loops: loop control expression (LCE), loop control variable (LCV), loop initialization and loop update, loop iterations; pre-test versus post-test looping constructs: the minimum number of iterations and when to use each; tabular strategy for analyzing looping code; while and do-while loops.		 Chapter 6 continued. Event-controlled versus counter-controlled processes; input validation as a event-controlled process using a post-test looping construct; implementation of the factorial example; infinite loops and forcing programs to exit using Ctrl-C.
Homework 4 due 11:00 PM Start Homework 5
Lab 7 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 8 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 8
Week 10
Mon 23 Oct Tue 24 Oct Wed 25 Oct Thu 26 Oct Fri 27 Oct Sat 28 Oct Sun 29 Oct
Lecture 18 (50:13) Lecture 19 (49:21)
Lecture Quiz 16 Lecture Quiz 17
Slides p. 103 – 106 Slides p. 113 – 115
Chapter 6 continued. Infinite loop examples; introduction to the C for loop and when to use it; examples of rewriting while loops into for loops. Chapter 6 continued. Introduction to recursion: recursive cases and base cases; example of recursion with factorials; limitations of recursion (stack overflow); review of repetition techniques.
Lab 8 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 9 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 9
Week 11

Chapter 6 notes p. 93 – 94: minimum, maximum, and average for an arbitrary number of exam scores.

Only a single loop is necessary: the input loop, which updates the current minimum, maximum, sum, and count of scores. When the user enters -1 as a score (a sentinel), the loop ends - the sum is divided by the count to get the average, and that is displayed along with the final minimum and maximum.

The concept of a sentinel in the input is also used on Homework 6.

Chapter 6 notes p. 107 – 112: sorting digits in a number from largest to smallest, creating as a result the largest possible number from those digits.

Repetitive processes:

  • Input validation in getInput
  • Counting zeroes in the original number n in ctZero
  • Looping while the original number n is greater than zero in the main function
    • Finding the largest digit in the original number n in findMax (this is a nested repetitive process!)
Mon 30 Oct Tue 31 Oct Wed 01 Nov Thu 02 Nov Fri 03 Nov Sat 04 Nov Sun 05 Nov
Lecture 20 (49:28) Lecture 21 (48:45)
Lecture Quiz 18 Lecture Quiz 19
Slides p. 116 – 120 Slides p. 120 – 127
Chapter 8. Introduction to arrays: motivation, concept, declaration and definition, initialization and assignment; iterating over arrays with loops. Chapter 8 continued. Going beyond the limits of an array; arrays across function boundaries: syntax and semantics of passing individual array elements by value and by address, and of passing entire arrays by address; handling of the array name as an address and the index as an offset with respect to that address (hence zero-based indexing); summary of passing various objects (variables, array elements, and arrays) by value, by address, and using the return keyword; printing or scanning entire arrays.
Homework 5 due 11:00 PM Start Homework 6
Lab 9 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 10 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 10
Week 12
Mon 06 Nov Tue 07 Nov Wed 08 Nov Thu 09 Nov Fri 10 Nov Sat 11 Nov Sun 12 Nov
Lecture 22 (50:41) Lecture 23 (49:57)
Lecture Quiz 20 Lecture Quiz 21
Slides p. 128 – 130 Slides p. 131 – 135
Chapter 8 continued. Introduction to efficient usage of arrays: more efficiently reversing the order of elements in an array; introduction to sorting: method of swapping values, unsorted lists and sorted lists, and passes; algorithm for selection sort. Chapter 8 continued. Finishing up selection sort; algorithm and code for bubble sort; algorithm for insertion sort; summary of sorting algorithms.
Lab 10 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 11 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 11
Week 13
Mon 13 Nov Tue 14 Nov Wed 15 Nov Thu 16 Nov Fri 17 Nov Sat 18 Nov Sun 19 Nov
Midterm 2: 08:00 – 09:30 PM, Hall of Music Lecture 24 (48:50) Lecture 25 (50:12)
Lecture Quiz 22 Lecture Quiz 23
Slides p. 147 – 150 Slides p. 150 – 154
Chapters 9 & 10. Generalizing addresses and pointer variables from the pass-by-address technique using the address-of operator & and dereferencing/indirection operator *; pointer declaration/definition, initialization, and modification; relationship of arrays and pointers. Chapters 9 & 10 continued. Pointer arithmetic and arrays; memory allocation for dynamically-sized arrays using the stdlib.h function malloc() and the sizeof operator.

The answer to the second lecture quiz question can be found in this 6 minute video.
Homework 6 due 11:00 PM Start Homework 7
Lab 11 due 30 minutes before lab period
Start Lab 12 (overview) + take Lab Quiz 12
Week 14
Mon 20 Nov Tue 21 Nov Wed 22 Nov Thu 23 Nov Fri 24 Nov Sat 25 Nov Sun 26 Nov
No classes or office hours (Thanksgiving break)
Week 15
Mon 27 Nov Tue 28 Nov Wed 29 Nov Thu 30 Nov Fri 01 Dec Sat 02 Dec Sun 03 Dec
Lecture 26 (46:37) Lecture 27 (48:18)
Lecture Quiz 24 Lecture Quiz 25
Slides p. 136 – 139 Slides p. 139 – 143
Chapter 8 continued. Solving problems using sorting algorithms; introduction to searching: sequential search concept and implementation; introduction to binary search.

Note: the recording is from my 1:30 section. Lecture quiz questions 1 and 2 were over selection and bubble sort. Check out this recording (11:23) to review lecture quiz question 3 (insertion sort) from my 2:30 section. There is also a template you can use to solve these questions.		 Chapter 8 continued. More sorting questions; binary search: algorithm, examples, and implementation.

Note: the recording is from my 2:30 section, in which we did lecture quiz questions 2 and 3. Check out this recording (11:20) to review lecture quiz question 1 from my 1:30 section.
Homework 7 due 11:00 PM
Lab 12 due 30 minutes before lab period
Attend Lab 13
Lab Quiz 13 due 11:00 PM
Quiet period (week 16)
Mon 04 Dec Tue 05 Dec Wed 06 Dec Thu 07 Dec Fri 08 Dec Sat 09 Dec Sun 10 Dec
Lecture 28 (50:11) Office hours
1:30 – 3:30 PM
MATH 175
Lecture Quiz 26
Slides p. 144 – 146
Chapter 8 continued. Multidimensional arrays: concept and motivation, declaration/definition, initialization, usage.

Note: the recording is from my 1:30 section, in which we did lecture quiz questions 1 – 3. In my 2:30 section, we did only questions 1 – 2.
No labs
TA office hours end
Finals week (17)
Mon 11 Dec Tue 12 Dec Wed 13 Dec Thu 14 Dec Fri 15 Dec Sat 16 Dec Sun 17 Dec
No classes or TA office hours
Office hours
10 AM – 12 PM
HAAS G24		 Final Exam
3:30 – 5:30 PM
Hall of Music		 Office hours
10 AM – 12 PM
HAAS G24

Last modified on Wed 06 Dec 2023 11:50 AM EST.

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