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Imran Shaikh
Imran Shaikh

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Understanding Expressions in Racket

An expression in Racket is a combination of values, variables, operators, and function calls that can be evaluated to produce a result. It represents a computation or operation that yields a specific value.

Example Expression

Consider the expression:

(+ 3 4)
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This expression evaluates to 7, and it is an example of a simple arithmetic operation (addition). The + is a primitive function, and 3 and 4 are the expressions being added.

General Structure of an Expression

Expressions in Racket follow a general structure:

(<primitive> <expression>...)

Here, <primitive> represents a primitive function or operator, and <expression>... denotes one or more expressions that serve as its arguments.

Expressions and Values

Expressions can represent various types of values. For instance, simple numeric values are expressions by themselves:

42 ; This is an expression representing the number 42
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Summary

  • An expression is a combination of elements that, when evaluated, produces a value.
  • Expressions can involve primitive functions, operators, and operands.
  • The general structure of an expression is <expression>....
  • Values, such as numbers, can also be considered expressions.

Understanding expressions is fundamental in Racket programming, as they are the building blocks for creating computations and algorithms.

This blog post is a part of my OSSU journey. ossu-post#1 core-cs/systematic-program-design/expressions.

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Top comments (1)

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itsmohamedyahia profile image
Mohamed Yahia

Hey, i am doing ossu too. I think you are trying to teach what you learn by writing articles to reinforce what you learned. Articles takes some time to write unlike teaching via voice. If you are interested, i am looking for a study partner

my ideal plan would be to schedule daily or every other day meetings where each one of us would priorly study a topic in a course (each one would be responsible for teaching one course) so two concurrent courses keeping prerequisites in mind

Each one would teach the other the topic, the one who is getting taught can then listen/read the original resources for revision and not missing on some valuable information

I need someone who has time for this, will respect schedules, and is committed

I thinking teaching each other would be motivating and is the best way for truly understanding what we are learning BUT i am also open to other plans.

If you are interested, send me a message/add me on discord. My username is nuclearegg69

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