What is pseudocode?

A pseudocode in programming is a method that could be used to represent an algorithm. Or in other words and pseudocode is an artificial and informal language which can be used for developing an algorithm. A pseudocode is an artificial and informal language that helps programmer to develop program in very effective manner.

It is text biased detail design tool.

Some characteristics of pseudocode are:

• It is not written in a specific syntax that is used by a programming language therefore it cannot be executed by the compiler.
• Pseudocode is written in a format that is closely related to high level programming language structures.
• Most of the formats of pseudocode are borrow from the stucture of popular programming languages like C,Lisp,FORTRAN etc.
• Natural language is also use in pseudocode when presenting details that are not importent.
• most of the algorithms are presented using pseudocode since they can be read and understood by the programmers who are familiar with diffrent programming languages.
• pseudocode includes some statements like while,do,for,if,switch,READ,PRINT etc.

Rules for write an pseudocode:

• Always capitalize the initial word.
• Make only one statement per line.
• Keep statements language independent
• always end multi-line sections using END keywords.
• Keep it understandable .
• Keep it simple.
• Keep it concise.

Example of pseudocode:

Pseudocode to add two numbers in c programming.

BEGIN

NUMBER s1,s2,sum

OUTPUT("Input number 1:")

INPUT s1

OUTPUT("Input number 2:")

INPUT s2

sum=s1+s2

OUTPUT sum

END

Advantages of pseudocode:

• It like a programming language therefore it can be easily convert into a code.
• It can be easily understandable by the programmer.
• It is programming language independent.
• Natural language can be use in it.(only when presenting details which are not importent).
• Can be easily understandable by the person who have few knowledge about programming.
• It allows the programmer to focus on main idea of a problem not on syntax of that problem.
• Pseudocodes are more readable as compared to algorithms.
• It can be easy to modify it.

Disadvantages of pseudocodes:

• It cannot be compiled by the compiler.
• We cannot check it accuracy because it can't be compiled by the compiler.
• It does not have any specific programming language.
• It is very time consuming.
• It is very hard to communicate with the persons which have no coding background.