DEV Community: Bernardo Torres

Google like a pro: 7 Google operators to get the most off your search [1/3]

Bernardo Torres — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 02:22:59 +0000

As developers, is completely impossible to remember absolutely everything because we're learning new things every day, therefore, we need to be good a googling in order to learn new things or to find a solution to some problem.

In this 3 part posts I'll be teaching you some basic to advanced Google operators so you can get the most off your Google Search. In each operator I will be comparing a search with and without the operator and I'll provide links for each search, so you can check out the difference. Ok, Let's dive in!

What are Google operators?

Google operators are special characters or words to filter your search results

1. " "

Looks for the exact phrase that's between quotation marks.

*Important: is not necessary to use them in your whole search

Not using quotation marks
Notice how Google is searching for each word individually

vue free course

Using quotation marks
Google is searching for the exact phrase "Vue free course"

"vue free course"

2. or |

Both 'or' and '|' do the same. A | B will show you results from A or B

Without |

The results are websites who contain both words

react vue

Using |

The results are websites who contain the word react or the word vue

react | vue

3. and

Shows the results that contain both A and B. This is mostly used with other operators since the default search already uses it.

Not using and

python javascript

Using and

python and javascript

4. site:

Shows the results from only the given site

Without site:

css

Using site:

css site:w3schools.com

5. cache:

Gives the most recent staged (cache) results from a website

Not using cache:

flexbox csstricks

Using cache:

flexbox cache:css-tricks.com

6. -

Excludes a word from the results

Not using -

web developer remote jobs

Using -

web developer remote jobs -javascript

7. *

It works like a wild-card. Google will replace any word for it

Not using *

javascript bootcamp

Using *

javascript * bootcamp

Which operator seems more useful to you?

I hope this was useful to you and I will be covering more operators in next posts, so stay tuned.

I'm posting daily JavaScript and Web Dev content on twitter @BernardoT0rres, so consider giving a follow for more content.

Stop using switches the wrong way, use this instead

Bernardo Torres — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 19:58:48 +0000

Introduction

In this example we have a 'color' variable and a 'colorPsychology' variable, 'colorPsychology' will be assigned a string depending of the value of 'color', so in this case a switch statement works fine. The problem is that since we're just executing one line of code, it ends up being unnecessary long, so we could use a different approach. Lets see

Using an object instead

A good approach would be using an object where the keys are the names of the color and the values are their respective color psychology

The value assignment of 'colorPsychology' could be a little confusing, but here's what's happening:

the colorPsychology variable is created
JS looks for the the value of the key color in our colorPsyOptions object
since the key is the color variable and this contains a string 'blue', JS will look for the value of the 'blue' key in our object
If the 'color' variable contains a value that doesn't isn't a key in our object, it will assign a string 'unknow'

Don't understand objects yet? check the MDN docs

Using an array when using numbers

In case we're using numbers as keys, we could use a shorter version with an array, like this:

Instead of using this:

We can do something like this:

When to use these approaches

When you're just assigning values in the switch statement

Exercises

Replace the following switch statements with the previous approach

You can use playcode

Fruit names translation

Planet names

Results

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

I hope this was useful to you and consider following me on Twitter as @BernardoT0rres, I'll be posting daily JavaScript content there

Stop using ugly if's and start using ternary operators in JavaScript

Bernardo Torres — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 21:57:37 +0000

What is it?

As it's name suggests, is an operator that takes 3 parameters (only one in JavaScript that takes 3), the first one is the condition, the second one is what will be returned or executed if the condition is true, the last one is what will be returned or executed if the condition is false.

This definition is very vague so let's see some examples

Examples

Replacing a simple if..else statement

This can be replaced for this

Returning a value

Defining a variable

Concatenating ternary operators

You can concatenate as many as you want, but don't over use it or it will end up being a nice plate of spaghetti code

When to use it

When the code to execute is short

If the expression is not very simple, then it's not a good idea to use it

When there's no more than 1 condition

As ****I said, you can concatenate as many as you want, but it will end up being hard to read, so keep it with only one condition (sometimes 2 will be ok)

Exercises

You can make this exercises online here

https://playcode.io/new/

Replace this if...else statement

Replace this returning statement

Replace this variable definition

Solutions

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

I hope this was useful to you and consider following me on Twitter, I'll be posting daily JavaScript content there

JavaScript for loops explained like you're 5

Bernardo Torres — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 04:28:34 +0000

Explanation

For loops are a way to execute the same code block X times. This is the most simple explanation about loops, but it's not really helpful, so let's dive deeper and see some examples.

Let's say you want to print 'hello world' 5 times, you could do something like this

Event tho this works, it's not the best approach, just imagine if you would need to print 'hello world' 97889 times, you would need to write console.log('hello world') 97889 on your code, but I don't even know why would anyone need to print'hello world' 97889 times hehehe, anyways, lets continue.

In this case it could be easier to use a for loop and our good friend JavaScript provides us with many kinds of for loops, but let's just use a regular for loop.

This code will print 'hello world' 5 times. Maybe you may think that this doesn't saves us so much lines of code, but If you need to print 'hello world' 97889 times, you just need to change the number 5.

Just like this, this code will print 'hello world' 97889 times. Ahhh, now it seems more helpful. But how does this work?

The basic structure of a for loop is such as this

initial expression

Here's where you declare a variable and this is where our for loop will start executing our code. Most of the times you will start with 0, but you can start with any number.

condition

Every time your for loop executes your code block (iterates), it first check's if the condition, if it returns true, the for loop will execute your code again and if it returns false, it will stop executing the code.

Careful: if your condition never returns false, it will execute your code forever!!!!

increment

It tells your for loop how much your initial expression will increment (or decrement) after each code block execution (iteration)

Analogy

A for loop is like following a daily routine, you're gonna repeat the same steps everyday until you reach a specific goal, but each day those steps could have different results

More examples

The 'hello world' example was a little bit dumb, but easy to understand, so now let's see some more 'advanced' implementations of a for loop

Printing from 1 to 10

Since our initial expression is set to 1 and the increment is 1, it will start executing from 1 and the initial expression will increment by 1 after each code execution. After every code execution (iteration) it will check if our initial expression is less or equal to 10, if it's true it will print the initial expression and if it's false, it will stop. So this code will end up printing the numbers from 1 to 10 and then it stops.

Remember: after each code execution (iteration), the initial expression will increment by 1

Printing odd numbers from 1 to 10 times 10

Our initial expression is 1, the increment is set to 2 and the condition checks if our initial expression is less or equal to 10. The code to execute will be our initial expression times 10, so it will end up printing 10, 30, 50, 70, 90 and then it stops.

It never prints 10 because after printing 90, the initial expression increments to 11, so the conditions return false and therefore it doesn't executes the code

I've seen you already mastered the basics of for loops, so now let's get crazy with them

Little guessing game

First, we declare an array of names
Then we declare a variable answer which is an empty string
Lastly we create a for loop who will use a initial expression of 0, it will increment by 1 and then it will stop at the 6th code execution
- Every code execution it will show you a prompt asking for a name
- Then it updates the answer to what you typed
- Lastly it will check if the answer is equal to the one stored in our names array in the i position, which is what the current code execution (iteration) is
  - example: in the third execution it will compare if your answer is equal to 'clara' since it is the 3rd name in the names array
- If the condition in the if statement is true, it will print 'You've guessed the name' and it's false, it will print 'Wrong, the name was "
  - example: if in the fourth execution you don't guess the name, it will print ''wrong, the name was john", since it is the fourth name stored in the names array

This game would be easier with a for...in loop but I will explain that kind of loop and more in other post, so stay tuned

Run this game and play with it here

https://jsfiddle.net/9r4zfj0q/

Exercises

You can make this exercises here

https://jsfiddle.net/

Print the numbers from 10 to 1
Print 'uwu' when the number is odd and print 'owo' when the number is even, from 1 to 20
Ask the user for his/her age and print the odd numbers from 1 to his/her age
Abolish social inequality...just kidding, that can't be done with a for loop T_T

Results

Remember that this exercises can be accomplished with different approaches, I'm just showing you my approach

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

What happened after completing the #100DaysOfCode challenge

Bernardo Torres — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 16:20:54 +0000

Why I started

I'm currently studying a Software Engineering degree in México. I was having so much trouble to stay motivated with school. The education isn't that bad, but the problem is that they mostly focus on theory and we barely develop software.

I decided to start learning web dev by myself. I already knew programming, SQL Databases and some HTML/CSS, so that was a really good starting point.

My main goal was to end up doing a few full stack applications. Did I achieve it? Keep reading for the outcome

Struggling in the process

During the journey I struggled a lot with motivation, college really shut me down, and lots of times I felt like I wasn't achieving anything, but in the last 30 days I learned a good lesson...

The real goals

...I discovered that we commonly miss-understand motivation. We think that we should always stay motivated, but that's impossible, therefore, it's a really bad idea to rely on motivation.

Build habits and drop bad ones. Make discipline your fuel. Motivation is just a boost!

The real goals of the challenge are:

Build habits that allow you to achieve what you want
Connect with other people, it doesn't matter if they're code newbies or seniors
Make progress on specific topics

What I've achieved

I manage to learn VueJS, Tailwind and Django, all at a basic level of course.
Made multiple HTML/CSS or Bootstrap websites
Started freelancing
Made a fulltsack app that is a reddit clone with a new design. Check it out on https://microdit.ml

Next steps

Now that I've started freelancing I want to focus on building a successful business and an online presence, but most importantly, to connect with people all over the world.

Tips for people starting the Challenge

Count only coding days. I've seen people counting days where they don't code, but I think it would be more satisfying to complete the challenge with 100 coding days.
Be flexible with your plans and don't worry if they don't come up as you wanted. Keep moving forward.
Learn to learn. School has given us a bad approach to learn practical skills. Learn by doing.
Most importantly, enjoy the process

I wish you a good journey and hopefully you get where you want to.

What to expect from your first 10 days of #100daysofcode

Bernardo Torres — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 02:08:09 +0000

The first 10 days of your journey will probably be the most decisive to achieve your goal

Starting with the right foot

Before starting you should make a planning where you set your main goal and break it down into smaller goals. Every small goal will be a solid step to achieve your main goal.

This planning should also contain which technologies you will be learning and which resources you will be learning from. You should also write down on your planning how many hours you will be coding per day.

First couple of days

The first 2 or 3 days you will be feeling really motivated to keep on coding, just remember, you don't need motivation, you need to build good habits in order to achieve your goals.

This first days will be enough to get a look on how the whole journey will be, and if you have a clear goal, it will be easier to achieve.

Feedback

The first thing you will be noticing is the positive feedback. The dev community is really supportive, specially on twitter, and you will be noticing it as soon as you post your first day of the challenge.

You will notice that there's actually lots of bots that instantly like and retweet your tweets. Just remember to use the #100daysofcode hashtag.

Struggle with coding every single day

You'll probably realize that it's impossible to code every single day, so don't be to hard on you and allow you to take rest days from the challenge.

I recommend you to keep counting from the last day you posted instead of counting every single day, including the days you don't code, so this way it will be truly 100 days of code.

Building a habit

You may think that the purpose of this challenge is to build a project, enhance your skills or simply learn to code, but in fact, the real purpose of this challenge is to successfully build the habit of coding and learning every day (or most of them).

As I said earlier, habits are way more powerful than motivation, so you should focus on building good habits and dropping the bad ones.

The power of habit is a great book that teaches you how we build habits and how these work. I totally recommend you reading this amazing book while you do the challenge. Here's also a small summary of the book.

Conclusion

Enjoy the positive feedback
Focus on building good habits
Plan before starting
Allow you to take rest days
Make your journey public
Enjoy the journey (plot twits: it never ends)

Commiting myself: Starting the 100DaysOfCodeChallenge

Bernardo Torres — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 20:55:22 +0000

Hi, my name is Bernardo Torres. I'm 23 years old from Mexico and I 'm studying Software Engineering.

When I started studying SE I was really exited to learn programming, but after 3 years of studying I feel like I don't know anything about programming and that's mainly because I have a lot of theoretical and non-coding related subjects and I haven't learned anything by myself.

My goal is to become a Software Engineer at a FAANG company, so I have decided to start learning to code by myself. I took this decision in march, when quarantine started, but I have struggled a lot on building the habit of code and learn every day. That's why I decided to start the #100DaysOfCode challenge.

Starting the challenge

I feel like having the commitment of sharing publicly my progress is going to help me on building this habit.

Plan

My plan is to tweet my progress every day on twitter and to post an article here every 10 days to make a rewind.

What am I gonna learn

From zero

Python
1.2. Flask
1.3. Django
Javascript
2.1. Vue
Linux

Improve

HTML/CSS
Git
English

Conclusion

I'm making this to build effectivly a good habit and to improve my english thru writting articles and interacting with people on twitter.

I'm fully concious that after 100 days of code I'm just gonna know the basics and the journy is still long.