Structured English

Structured English

From user-speak to programming Plain English Structured English Pseudocode Programs User Analyst Programmer

Modeling Logic with Structured English • Modified form of English used to specify the logic of information processes • Uses a subset of English • Action verbs • Noun phrases • No adjectives or adverbs • It should read like English • No specific standards exist

Structured English Keep the language tight and precise, but clear enough to be readable by the user Blocks indicate general steps; indent for structure Sequence is important Identify areas of decision-making (conditions) and repetition See Figure 9-3 on the right

Writing Structured English • File Names • Separate words with hyphens • Use Title Case, e.g. Invoice-Record • Common verbs • READ, ACCEPT, GET, WRITE, PRINT, SORT, MOVE, MERGE, ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY, DIVIDE • Common nouns: • Variable names, attributes, data flow inputs and outputs • Focus on how the process converts the inputs to outputs

Writing Structured English Conditions • BEGIN IF • IF … THEN … • statements … • ELSE • statements … • END IF or • SELECT • CASE 1 (conditions) • statements … • CASE 2 … • statements … • END SELECT Repetition • DO • statements … • UNTIL end-condition or • DO WHILE • statements … • END DO

P&E 9.1 • Represent the logic in this table as Structured English

P&E 9.2 • See Figure 8-16, process 5.0. • Write Structured English for this process. See text on page 256 for more information.

Structured English