You already know how to code - Part One

You probably think the title is clickbait, but it’s not. Just read along, and I will prove it in the next few minutes.

Clickbait describes misleading internet content or shocking headline titles that aim to drive traffic to a website.

Bring out your mobile phone and save a new contact with the following details:

• Name: akash
• Phone: 9999999999

Done? You won’t believe me, but you just wrote a line of code. In programming terms, you wrote a statement to declare a variable (akash) and assigned it a value (9999999999)

Now, will you believe me if I tell you programming is much easier than saving a contact on your phone?

Let’s try to do what you did above, declaring a variable and assigning it a value in a programming language called python.

akash = 9999999999

That’s it.

Let’s dive deeper to understand this simple line of code further. It might look useless, but it will help you not to get confused with variable names ever again.

When you created a new contact on your mobile, what you did was this:

• You thought it was tough for you to remember this super complicated phone number 9999999999
• So you asked the tiny computer in your hand to remember that value for you, and give you back the value anytime you ask for the phone number of akash

Your mobile does not need to know who akash is; you could have used any text to save the contact. The only thing it’s concerned about is whenever you say akash, you mean 9999999999.

Coding is giving instructions

You write the instructions, and the computer follows that. If you are someone like me, who enjoys giving the order, you sure will love coding.

You do not have to start from square one. You are already a programmer if you know how to give clear instructions. You only need to learn the syntax.

In the next part of this article, we will do some actual coding to help you start thinking like a programmer.