Cambridge Assessment International Education

Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level

* 2 5 4 3 3 5 7 7 0 8 *

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9608/22

Paper 2 Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills May/June 2019
2 hours
Candidates answer on the Question Paper.
No Additional Materials are required.
No calculators allowed.

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your centre number, candidate number and name in the spaces at the top of this page.
Write in dark blue or black pen.
You may use an HB pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.
Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid.
DO NOT WRITE IN ANY BARCODES.

Answer all questions.

No marks will be awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.

At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.

The maximum number of marks is 75.

This document consists of 16 printed pages.

DC (ST/CT) 163546/4
© UCLES 2019 [Turn over
 2

1 (a) Algorithms are used in computer programming.

(i) Explain the term algorithm.

is it a sequence of instructions in a given order used to perform a specific task.
...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) Algorithms usually consist of three different types of activity.

Complete the table below.

The third activity type is given.

Activity type Pseudocode example

INPUT age
..................................................................................................................
input
.........................
..................................................................................................................

IF age<0
..................................................................................................................
process
.........................
..................................................................................................................

OUTPUT age
..................................................................................................................
Output
..................................................................................................................

[5]

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19

 3

(b) Program variables have values as follows:

Variable Value
Married 03/04/1982
ID "M1234"
MiddleInitial 'J'
Height 5.6
IsMarried TRUE
Children 2

(i) Evaluate each expression in the following table.

If an expression is invalid, write ERROR.

For the built-in functions list, refer to the Appendix on page 16.

Expression Evaluates to
STRING_TO_NUM(RIGHT(ID, 3)) 234
INT(Height * Children) 11

IsMarried AND Married < 31/12/1999 TRUE

LENGTH(ID & NUM_TO_STRING(Height)) 8

MID(ID, INT(Height) – Children, 2) 34 23
[5]

(ii) Programming languages support different data types.

Give an appropriate data type for the following variables from part (b).

Variable Data type

Married DATE

ID STRING
MiddleInitial CHAR
Height REAL

IsMarried BOOLEAN
[5]

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19 [Turn over

 4

2 (a) (i) Procedures and functions are examples of subroutines.

State a reason for using subroutines in the construction of an algorithm.

...........................................................................................................................................
Sub routines are pre defined libraries.

.....................................................................................................................................
EASY TO UNDERSTAND [1]

(ii) Give three advantages of using subroutines in a program.

Sub routines save time to re write routines.
1 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
THEY SAVE TIME TO CHECK THE CODE FOR ERRORS AS THEY ARE PRE TESTED.
2 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

3 ........................................................................................................................................
THEY ALLOW FOR MODULAR PROGRAMMING.

...........................................................................................................................................
CHANGES NEED TO BE MADE TO THE PROGRAM ONLY ONCE IF TASK CHANGES.
[3]

(iii) The following pseudocode uses the subroutine DoSomething().

Answer 23 + DoSomething("Yellow")

State whether the subroutine is a function or a procedure. Justify your answer.

Type of subroutine .............................................................................................................

PROCEDURE

Justification .......................................................................................................................
AS IT DOESNT RETURN ANYTHING.

FUNCTION AS IT RETURNS A VALUE TO THE ANSWER.

...........................................................................................................................................
[2]

(b) The program development cycle involves writing, translating and testing a high-level language
program.

Describe these activities with reference to each of the following:

• editor
• translator
• debugger
THE CODE IS WRITTEN IN HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE FOR THE PROGRAM IN THE
...................................................................................................................................................
EDITOR.
...................................................................................................................................................
THE CODE IS CONVERTED FROM HIGH LEVEL TO BINARY IN THE TRANSLATOR SO
...................................................................................................................................................
THAT IT IS UNDERSTOOD BY THE COMPUTER.
...................................................................................................................................................
THE CODE IS CHECKED FOR ANY ERRORS IN THE DEBUGGER. ERRORS ARE ALSO
...................................................................................................................................................
RESOLVED HERE.
............................................................................................................................................. [3]
© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19
 5

(c) The following lines of code are taken from a high-level language program.

WHEN Result < 20

{
Call ResetSensor(3)
Result := GetSensor(3)
}

Identify the type of control structure and describe the function of the code.
SELECTION PRE CONDITIONAL LOOP
Control structure .......................................................................................................................
IF THE VALUE OF RESULT IS LESS THAN 20 THEN
Function of code .......................................................................................................................
CALL THE FUNCTION RESETSENSOR AND PASS IT THE VALUE
...................................................................................................................................................
3.
...................................................................................................................................................
AFTER THIS, ASSIGN THE VALUE OF GETSENSOR WITH VALUE 3
TO THE VARIABLE RESULT.
...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[3]

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19 [Turn over

 6

3 The following structure chart shows the relationship between three modules.

TopLevel

B
D

A C
E

SubA SubB

Parameters A to E have the following data types:

A, D : STRING
C : CHAR
B, E : INTEGER

(a) (i) Write the pseudocode header for module SubA().

PROCEDURE (A:STRING, B:INTEGER, BYREF C:CHAR)
...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [3]

(ii) Write the pseudocode header for module SubB().

FUNCTION (D:STRING, E:INTEGER) RETURNS BOOLEAN
...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [3]

(b) Module hierarchy and parameters are two features that may be represented on a structure
chart.

State two other features than can be represented.

LINKAGE BETWEEN MODULES.
Feature 1 ..................................................................................................................................
THE RETURN TYPES.
Feature 2 ..................................................................................................................................
[2]
SELECTION, ITERATION, SEQUENCE

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19

 7

Question 4 begins on the next page.

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19 [Turn over

 8

4 The following is pseudocode for a string handling function.

For the built-in functions list, refer to the Appendix on page 16.

FUNCTION Search(InString : STRING) RETURNS INTEGER

DECLARE NewString : STRING

DECLARE Index : INTEGER
DECLARE NextChar : CHAR
DECLARE Selected : INTEGER
DECLARE NewValue : INTEGER

NewString '0'
Selected 0

FOR Index 1 TO LENGTH(InString)

NextChar MID(InString, Index, 1)

IF NextChar < '0' OR NextChar > '9'
THEN
NewValue STRING_TO_NUM(NewString)
IF NewValue > Selected
THEN
Selected NewValue
ENDIF
NewString '0'
ELSE
NewString NewString & NextChar
ENDIF

ENDFOR

RETURN Selected

ENDFUNCTION

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19

 9

(a) (i) The following assignment calls the Search() function:

Result Search("12∇34∇5∇∇39")

Complete the following trace table by performing a dry run of this function call.

The symbol '∇' represents a space character. Use this symbol to represent a space
character in the trace table.

Index NextChar Selected NewValue NewString

0 0
1 1 01
2 2 012

3 S 012S
3 012S3
4
4 012S34
5
6 S 012S34S

[5]

(ii) State the value returned by the function when it is called as shown in part (a)(i).
12S34S5SS39
....................................... [1]
034

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19 [Turn over

 10

(b) There is an error in the algorithm. When called as shown in part (a)(i), the function did not
return the largest value as expected.

(i) Explain why this error occurred when the program called the function.
IF NEXTCHAR < 0 OR NEXTCHAR> 9
...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
LOOP TERMINATES AT THE FINAL DIGIT AND THERE IS NO FINAL COMPARISON
MADE
...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) Describe how the algorithm could be amended to correct the error.
REVERSE THE SYMBOLS.
...........................................................................................................................................
CHECK IF NEWSTRING IS GREATER THAN SELECTED.
...........................................................................................................................................
ADD SPACE CHARACTER

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

5 A student is learning about text files. She wants to write a program to count the number of lines in
a file.

(a) Use structured English to describe an algorithm she could use.

...................................................................................................................................................
DECLARE VARIABLE OF TYPE INTEGER TO STORE COUNT OF NUMBER OF LINES.
...................................................................................................................................................
OPEN THE FILE.
...................................................................................................................................................
USE WHILE LOOP AND EOF STATEMENT.
...................................................................................................................................................
KEEP ON APPENDING VARIABLE BY 1 TILL END OF FILE ISNT REACHED.
...................................................................................................................................................
END THE WHILE LOOP.
.............................................................................................................................................
CLOSE THE FILE. [3]

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19

 11

(b) A procedure, CountLines(), is being written to count the number of lines in a text file. The
procedure will:

• take a filename as a string parameter

• count the number of lines in the file
• output a single suitable message that includes the total number of lines.

Write pseudocode for the procedure CountLines().

PROCEDURE COUNTILINES(FILENAME:STRING)
...................................................................................................................................................
DECLARE LINENUM,LINE: INTEGER

...................................................................................................................................................
OPENFILE FILENAME FOR READ

...................................................................................................................................................
WHILE NOT EOF
READFILE FILENAME, LINE
LINENUM<-LINENUM+1
...................................................................................................................................................
ENDWHILE
...................................................................................................................................................
CLOSEFILE FILENAME
OUTPUT("THE NUMBER OF LINES ARE", LINENUM)
...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [6]

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19 [Turn over

 12

6 Nadine is developing a program to store the ID and preferred name for each student in a school.
For example, student Pradeep uses the preferred name “Prad”.

The program will:

1. prompt and input a valid user ID and a preferred name

2. write the user ID and preferred name to one of two files
3. allow the user to end the program or repeat from step 1.

The program will consist of three separate modules. Each module will be implemented using
either a procedure or a function.

Nadine has defined the modules as follows:

Module Description
TopLevel() • Call GetInfo() to obtain a string containing a valid user ID and a
preferred name
• Call WriteInfo() to write the string to either File1.txt or
File2.txt depending on the first character of the user ID as follows:
○ ‘A’ to ‘M’: writes to File1.txt
○ ‘N’ to ‘Z’: writes to File2.txt
For example, a string with a user ID of "G1234" writes to File1.txt
• End the program if the file write was unsuccessful
• Input (Y/N) to either repeat for the next user ID or to end the program
GetInfo() • Input a user ID and repeat until the user ID is valid
• Input a preferred name. This will be an empty string if no preferred
name is input.
• Concatenate the user ID and preferred name using a '*' character as
a separator and return this string
WriteInfo() • Open the file
• Append the concatenated string to the file
• Close the file
• Return a Boolean value:
○ TRUE if the file write was successful
○ FALSE if the file write failed, for example, if the disk was full

A valid user ID:

• is five characters in length

• has a single upper case alphabetic character followed by four numeric characters, for
example “G1234”.

Nadine has decided that global variables and nested modules must not be used.

Nadine wants all inputs to have suitable prompts.

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19

 13

(a) Write program code for the module GetInfo().

Visual Basic and Pascal: You should include the declaration statements for variables.
Python: You should show a comment statement for each variable used with its data type.

Programming language ............................................................................................................

Program code
FUNCTION GetInfo(): RETURNS STRING
...................................................................................................................................................
REPEAT
...................................................................................................................................................
INPUT USERID
UNTIL USERID>0
...................................................................................................................................................
INPUT PREFFEREDNAME
...................................................................................................................................................
STRING<- "USERID"&"*"&"PREFFEREDNAME"
...................................................................................................................................................
RETURN STRING
...................................................................................................................................................
ENDFUNCTION

...................................................................................................................................................
VALIDATION OF THE USER ID.
...................................................................................................................................................
VALID= FALSE
...................................................................................................................................................
REPEAT
INPUT USERID
...................................................................................................................................................
FOR C= 1 TO LENGTH(USERID)
IF LENGTH(USERID)==5 AND A<LEFT(USERID,1)<Z AND 0<RIGHT(USERID,4)<9 THEN
...................................................................................................................................................
VALID= TRUE
ELSE
...................................................................................................................................................
VALID= FALSE
ENDIF
...................................................................................................................................................
NEXT
UNTIL VALID=TRUE
...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
FUNCTION GETINFO() RETURNS STRING
...................................................................................................................................................
INPUT USERID
WHILE Z<(LEFT((USERID,1))<A AND 9<(RIGHT(USERID,4))<0 AND LENGTH(USERID)<>5
...................................................................................................................................................
INPUT USERID
ENDWHILE
INPUT PREFNAME
...................................................................................................................................................
IF PREFNAME=”” THEN
PREFNAME= ‘’
...................................................................................................................................................
STRING= USERID & ‘*’ % PREFNAME
...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [8]
© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19 [Turn over
 14

(b) Write program code for the module TopLevel().

Visual Basic and Pascal: You should include the declaration statements for variables.
Python: You should show a comment statement for each variable used with its data type.

Programming language ............................................................................................................

Program code
PROCEDURE TOPLEVEL()
...................................................................................................................................................
CALL GETINFO(STRING)
...................................................................................................................................................
CALLWRITEINFO()

...................................................................................................................................................
DECLARE CHOICE:BOOLEAN
DECLARE CHAR:CHAR
...................................................................................................................................................
INPUT CHOICE
...................................................................................................................................................
REPEAT
...................................................................................................................................................
CHAR<- MID(STRING,1,1)
...................................................................................................................................................
IF CHAR>=A AND CHAR<=M THEN
WRITEINFO(FILE1,TXT)
...................................................................................................................................................
ELSEIF CHAR>=N AND CHAR<=M THEN
...................................................................................................................................................
WRITEINFO(FILE2.TXT)

...................................................................................................................................................
ELSE
PRINT "FILE WRITE UNSUCCESSFUL."
...................................................................................................................................................
ENDIF

...................................................................................................................................................
UNTIL CHOICE= N

ENDPROCEDURE
...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
PROCEDURE TOPLEVEL()
...................................................................................................................................................
REPEAT
INPUT CHOICE
...................................................................................................................................................
IF CHOICE== Y THEN
...................................................................................................................................................
STRING = GETINFO()
...................................................................................................................................................
IF A<LEFT(STRING,1)<M THEN
...................................................................................................................................................
WRITEINFO(FILE1.TXT)

...................................................................................................................................................
ELIF N<LEFT(STRING,1)<Z THEN
WRITEINFO(FILE2.TXT)
...................................................................................................................................................
ELSE
...................................................................................................................................................
OUTPUT"WRITE UNSUCCESSFUL"

ENDIF
...................................................................................................................................................
UNTIL CHOICE== N
...................................................................................................................................................
ENDPROCEDURE
............................................................................................................................................. [8]
© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19
 15

(c) Write pseudocode for the module declaration of WriteInfo().

FUNCTION WRITEINFO(STRING: STRING): RETURNS BOOLEAN
...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [3]

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of
Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which itself is a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19

 16

Appendix

Built-in functions (pseudocode)

Each function returns an error if the function call is not properly formed.

MID(ThisString : STRING, x : INTEGER, y : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING

returns a string of length y starting at position x from ThisString

Example: MID("ABCDEFGH", 2, 3) returns "BCD"

LENGTH(ThisString : STRING) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the integer value representing the length of ThisString

Example: LENGTH("Happy Days") returns 10

LEFT(ThisString : STRING, x : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING

returns leftmost x characters from ThisString

Example: LEFT("ABCDEFGH", 3) returns "ABC"

RIGHT(ThisString : STRING, x : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING

returns rightmost x characters from ThisString

Example: RIGHT("ABCDEFGH", 3) returns "FGH"

INT(x : REAL) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the integer part of x

Example: INT(27.5415) returns 27

NUM_TO_STRING(x : REAL) RETURNS STRING

returns a string representation of a numeric value.

Example: NUM_TO_STRING(87.5) returns "87.5"

Note: This function will also work if x is of type INTEGER

STRING_TO_NUM(x : STRING) RETURNS REAL

returns a numeric representation of a string.

Example: STRING_TO_NUM("23.45") returns 23.45

Note: This function will also work if x is of type CHAR

Operators (pseudocode)

Operator Description

Concatenates (joins) two strings

&
Example: "Summer" & " " & "Pudding" produces "Summer Pudding"

Performs a logical AND on two Boolean values

AND
Example: TRUE AND FALSE produces FALSE

Performs a logical OR on two Boolean values

OR
Example: TRUE OR FALSE produces TRUE

© UCLES 2019 9608/22/M/J/19