DEV Community: Runo-saduwa

2020: Year in review

Runo-saduwa — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 11:00:09 +0000

School

I'm a final year student of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Delta State (FUPRE) and over 70% of FUPRE's lecturers are under the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which embarked on a nationwide strike that lasted for 8 months. This means that Nigerian students in higher-institutions affected by this strike have been out of school for 8 months.

This was bad news for a lot of students especially the final year students like myself but...

For Everything you have missed you have gained something else. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

So I want to use this opportunity to thank the ASUU Chairman, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi for giving me a break from school. This strike was the beginning of new things for me, I had enough time to grow exponentially in my software engineering career and also make a lot of money before I turned 21.

Career

So like I said earlier, I grew exponentially in my software engineering career.

I made significant contributions to open-source by contributing to the Joplin Project. I'm really proud of this because anyone who knows about Open-source knows how difficult it is to make a pull request but with no prior experience I was able to get over 4 of my pull requests merged.
I helped in launching a brilliant fintech product. I got a contract from a startup based in the United states to help them build their product. This startup has been battling with finding the right talent to properly build their User Interface. Prior to our contract, they had worked with 4 different teams that couldn't deliver the product successfully but when I came onboard I was able to ship the product to production in less than 6 months.
I was able to work with someone i hold in high-esteem. A very talented Senior Software engineer and my experience working with him improved my technical skills by 100%!
I secured a 3 months internship with a company in San Francisco.
I got a full-time job, now I got a stable income from writing code!
I worked with a lot of interesting technologies such as React, React Native, Cloud services (AWS), GraphQL, Figma and also became more conscious about building high-performance, maintainable, scalable, accessible and modern web and mobile applications. As a bad guy ;)

Money

Close friends know that I love money (I mean, who doesn't?) and this year I made a lot of it and all I can say is Money is good.

My self-esteem has broken the charts, I feel 10x more confident than I was in 2019, my net-worth increased by over 100%. I'm a much more happier person and even when i'm down or sad its never because of lack of money because these days I spend to cure any pain i'm experiencing. I can now afford things I desire to have without (too much) tears, this year i changed all my gadgets to some of the best out there and i hope to do this again next year, I'm now a blessing to myself, family and anyone that comes to my presence.

Investments

Earlier this year, sometime in the month of May when i saw that i had over half a million in my possession i decided to try crypto trading so I enrolled in a crypto trading school, bought some satoshi and decided to trade in my spare time but unfortunately i couldn't cope with the trading school because I got very busy with my contract job.

After my crypto trading experience i decided not to go into such a venture till i'm very sure about my time schedule.

Presently i enrolled in a 2 months Product Design course.

I was also awarded with some shares from the company i work for in San Franciso, documents signed and sealed!

Relationships

I've been far away from my friends and it's been painful but i guess that's the price i had to pay for jumping into the adult lifestyle so early because most of my friends can't relate to things i'm experiencing in life right now so it's hard to maintain a long conversation with most of them.

I made a lot of friends at work though, really awesome people!

Girlfriend?, omo. Still haven't found who's worth my time, love, money and full commitment because i'm a spec and a spec needs a spec but specs are hard to find so we keep searching (no settling down for low quality).

Family?, I built a solid relationship with my parents and siblings. I hide nothing from my parents, they know how much i earn, my situationships, my scuffles and everything else.

COVID19

Myself, my family, friends, colleagues, and everyone around me didn't contract it. Thank God!

Talks and Tecnical writing

This year i wasn't too active in the community, i wrote only one technical article and gave one talk which was at the Facebook Build Day. Next year will be much better!

Wins

I contributed to open source
I got my first dollar paying contract
I got an Internship with a startup based in San Francisco
I helped ship a brilliant fintech product (It's the next big thing, watch out!)
New Gadgets, i changed all
I got a full time job
I gave a lot in 2020 and i felt great doing it. I pray for more blessing to be a blessing to people.
Net-worth increased by 100%
I supported my family morally and financially
I turned 21 and i didn't die this year

Notable Losses

I lost my grandma (80 years)
I couldn't participate in GSoC (Google student Internship)
I didn't learn crypto trading after paying $200 for the training, it was all my fault.
My application to Microsoft was rejected. no reasons given
My application to Goldman Sachs was rejected. no reasons given.

Gratitude

I'm full of thanks. 2020 has been awesome, My wins overshadowed my losses. I'm looking forward to what 2021 has in store for me, the possibilities are endless, its gonna be a really big year, more growth, more money and more records to be broken. Right now my only goal for 2021 is to do 10x better than I did in 2020.

Thanks for reading, please like and share!, Happy new year in Advance!!

Go variables: the bare minimum knowledge

Runo-saduwa — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 17:03:03 +0000

Variables are one of the most important features of any programming language. It helps us to store data and also distribute data to various parts of our applications.

Here and now, we’ll learn what’s really necessary to learn about variables in Go.

First things first, The `var` keyword

Variables are declared in Go with the
var keyword. Easy peasy, let’s move on.

How to declare a variable

Let’s say we want to declare a variable called language which will hold a string value, how do we do that in Go?

Easy, we’ll simply write the var keyword followed by the variable name, which is language and finally the type of our variable, in this case it’s a string. See the code snippet below:

var language string

Go is a typed language so you should never omit specifying the type of the variable if it hasn’t yet been initialized with a value. We’ll talk about variable initialization in the next section.

How to initialize a variable

By now, we all know variables are like containers where we keep things, so what is variable initialization?

variable initialization is simply the process of assigning a value to a variable. So, in other words it’s like the process of putting things into a container.

Great, so how do we intialize a variable with a value in Go?

Looking back at our previous example above, let’s say we want to assign a value to the language variable. This can be accomplished by using the
= operator, see the example below!

import (
    "fmt"
)
var language string = “English”;

func main() {
    fmt.Println(language) //English 

}

When a variable is declared and explicitly initialized with a value, you can avoid specifying the type of the variable. The variable will take the type of the initializer, this is called inferred typing.

import (
    "fmt"
)
var language = “English”;

func main() {
    fmt.Println(language) //English

}

Implicit initialization

When a variable is declared without being initialized with a variable, it is implicitly initialized with a value according to the type of the variable.

If its a string type, it is initialized with ’’.
if it’s an interger int type, it’s initialized with 0.
if it’s a Boolean type it’s initialized with false.

import (
    "fmt"
)
var name string;
var age int;
var married bool;
func main() {
    fmt.Println(name, age, married) //‘’, 0, false

}

The short assignment statement

Inside a function you can initialize a variable with the short assignment statement := to save yourself time and to keep your code elegant and readable.

import (
    "fmt"
)

func main() {
   name := “Runo”;
    fmt.Println(name) //name

}

REMINDER: this can only be done inside a function and not in the package level.

Well, there you have it!, in my opinion this is the bare minimum knowledge one needs to work comfortably with Go variables.

Happy Coding!

How to Install React Native with Expo - Quick & Easy

Runo-saduwa — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 16:43:35 +0000

Hey there!, so you want to get into mobile development or you're already familier with mobile development and you want to install/set-up React Native on your machine, but your machine is slow😥 and or you live in a country where the cost of good internet data is quite expensive so you can’t afford to install Android studio or Xcode

Never say never!, after reading this you'll have React Native up and running on your machine without consuming ridiculous amount of space on your machine with the help of this life saver called Expo!, Lets get started.

STEP 1 - Install Node.js

If you have the Node 10 LTS or greater installed on your machine. kindly move to the next step!, If you dont, visit nodejs website to install the recommended version for your OS.

STEP 2 - Install the Expo CLI

We'll install Expo CLI with npm, npm comes along with Node, you can confirm this by running the following command.

npm -v

it will print the version of npm installed in your machine.

Now, we install Expo CLI by running the following command:

npm install -g expo-cli

STEP 3 - Create a new React Native project

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project called "NewProject":

expo init NewProject

cd NewProject
npm start # you can also use: expo start

Awesome!!, now you've successfully installed and set-up a new project, next step you'll learn how to run your app.

STEP 4 - Running your React Native application

Install the Expo client app on your iOS or Android phone and connect to the same wireless network as your computer. On Android, use the Expo app to scan the QR code from your terminal to open your project. On iOS, follow on-screen instructions to get a link.

Congratulations!!, You have successfully installed React Native, go forth and build!!!❤️❤️❤️

The var keyword

Runo-saduwa — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 18:04:13 +0000

Before ES6, all variables in JavaScript were declared with the var keyword. This keyword causes our variables to have a function scope.

Lets understand this better with the following code snippet:

  function SayName(){
   var name = "Tega";
   }

console.log(name)//Undefined

The console prints out undefined because the variable name inside the SayName function is not visible outside the SayNamefunction.

The behaviour is quite different in another block that is not a function block. For example, see what happens in an if block.

  if(true){
   var name = "Tega";
   }

console.log(name)//Tega

The console prints Tega.

Considering the results from the two examples, it is evident that variables declared with the var keyword have a local scope only when they are found within a function block.

It's a bad behaviour
This is a bad behaviour that has caused a lot of frustration amongst JavaScript programmers. Prior to ES6, JavaScript had function scope, but block scoping is more common in most programming languages. With ES6, let and const keywords were introduced to allow us to declare variables that are block scoped which is a safe behaviour.

Thank you for reading!
Happy Coding!❤

let, const & Block scoping

Runo-saduwa — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 18:03:01 +0000

What is block scoping?!

Quite simply, this means a new scope is created between a pair of {}. Unlike the var keyword, the variables declared with let and const can only exist within the innermost block that surrounds them.

In the following example, what do you think will be printed to the console when the code is executed.

    let name = 'Runo';
    {
     let name = 'Tega';
    }
   console.log(name)

The value Runo is printed to the console because the second variable name is not visible outside the block, it simply doesn't exist outside the block.

let & const: Similarities

In this section, we'll look at the similarities between the let and const keywords in different use cases:

Block Scoping

We know that the var keyword is bound to function scope, whereas let and const are
block scoped which means that if you have a set of curly braces {} you have a block scope.

One declaration per scope

This means that let and const can be used to declare a particular variable only once within its scope, lets see an example to level our understanding:

    let name = "Runo";
    let name = "Tega";
    console.log(name); //error

Same goes for const

   const name = "Runo";
   const name = "Tega";
   console.log(name); //error

Note: the var keyword acts differently, it allows a variable to be declared twice and then it takes the value of the most recent declaration, see the code snippet below:

   var name = "Runo";
   var name = "Tega";
   console.log(name) // Tega

Let & const: Differences

In this section we'll look at the differences between let and const and when to use them.

Variable initialization

const variables must be initialized with a value, but let variables don't always require an intialization variable.


  const a; //Syntax error

  let a;

Variable reassignment

let variables can be reassigned to another value, whereas const variables cannot. See the following:

   let name = "Runo";
       name = "Tega";
       console.log(name) // Tega

const variables cannot be reassigned, see below:

      const pi = 3.142;
            pi = 3.14; //uncaught typeError

const should be used to hold variables whose values remain constant throughout the program. It can be used to create variables that hold references to the DOM.

Summary

The const and let keywords support block scoping (lexical binding) and the const key word is used to declare variables with constant values, whereas the let keyword is used to declare variables whose values can change in the course of programming. The let keyword is a good replacement for legacy ES5 var keyword.

Default Function Parameters (ES6)

Runo-saduwa — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 18:02:05 +0000

In the ES5 days, to set default values you might write your code in this manner:

function getSum(a, b){
 a = (a !== undefined) ? a:1;
 b = (b !== undefined) ? b:41;
 return a + b;
}
 getSum() //42
 getSum(1,2) //3

function getSum(a, b){
 a = a || 1;
 b = b || 41;
 return a + b;
}
 getSum() //42
 getSum(1,2) //3

These are good solutions, but hey it's 2019, Modern JavaScript is here to rescue us from this long walk. Now, you can set default values to the parameters in the function declaration statement itself like so:

function getSum(a = 1, b = 41){
 return a + b;
}
 getSum() //42
 getSum(1,2) //3

If you don't specify an argument, the default value of the parameters gets used.

Compared to the older methods of setting default values, this new feature provided by ES6 is easier and much cleaner.

Happy Coding!❤

ES6 Rest and Spread Operators

Runo-saduwa — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 17:57:30 +0000

ES6 added a lot of cool features to JavaScript. The Rest and Spread operators are powerful new features that allow us to access and manipulate data easily.

The word Rest here simply means gathering up parameters and putting them all into a single array.

Also, the word Spread refers to spreading out the elements of an iterable (arrays, objects and strings).

They both make use of the three dots ... but apply it differently to suit their purpose.

In this post, we'll learn about the Rest and Spread operators, how to use them and when to use them.

Table of Content:

Rest Operators
Spread Operators
Summary

Rest Operators

As we stated earlier, The Rest operators gather up parameters and put them all in a single array.

It makes use of the ... symbol which precedes a named parameter that will become an array that will just gather up the remaining parameters passed to a function. See the following example:

  function showNames(...names){
   console.log(names);
}

 showNames("Runo","Tega","Ejiro") // ["Runo","Tega","Ejiro"]

In the example above, the rest parameter is names which is preceded by a ... to denote that names is indeed a rest parameter. When the function is invoked the console prints the value of names as ["Runo","Tega","Ejiro"] which is an array created by gathering all the arguments passed into the, into the showNames functions.

When You Should Use the Rest Operators

The rest operators can be very useful when you need to create function definitons that can accept unlimited number of parameters, let's see an example:

 function add(a, b){
   return console.log(a + b);
}
add(1,2); // 3
add(1, 2, 3, 4, 5); //3

The first function call, add(1,2) returns 3. This is quite normal and straight forward, but what if you needed to pass in more arguments to your function to help you add more than 2 parameters?

After invoking the next add function which is add(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) we'll still get 3 because in JavaScript you can call a function with any number of arguments but the number of arguments that will be used depends on the number of parameters specified in the function definition.

In this case, only 2 parameters are specified. Hence, Javascript picks up the first 2 arguments.

Rest parameters to the rescue

With the rest parameters we can gather any number of arguments into an array and do whatever you want with them. We can use array methods like higher-order functions like forEach(), map(), reduce().

Using rest parameters, we can rewrite the add function like this:

function add(...rest){
  let total = 0;
  rest.forEach(num => total += num);

return console.log(total);
}

add(1,2); //3
add(1, 2, 3); //6
add(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6);//21

By doing so, we have succeeded in making our function flexible and adaptable to accept as much arguments as possible because the rest parameter will gather them up in an array and we make good use of the forEach() method to iterate over each element in the array add it to the total variable.

Note: If you need to specify a parameter (or parameters) alongside a rest parameter, ensure that the rest parameter is last in your function definition.

function allNames(name1, ...name2, name3){
console.log(name2); // Error!
}

allNames("Runo", "Tega", "Ejiro", "Simi", "Gare");

Please DON'T DO this, it doesn't make any sense to JavaScript. The rest parameters job is to gather the excess arguments that will be passed into a function. This function should be rewritten like so:

function allNames(name1, name2, ...name3){
console.log(name2); // Tega
console.log(name3); // ["Ejiro", "Simi", "Gare"];
console.log(name3.length); // 3
}

allNames("Runo", "Tega", "Ejiro", "Simi", "Gare");

It's also important to know that the length property of functions ignores the rest parameters, lets see what we'll get if we try to find the length of the allNames function:

function allNames(name1, name2, ...name3){
console.log(name2); // Tega
}

console.log(allNames.length) // 2

Spread Operators

The spread operator simply does the opposite of what the rest operator does, it unpacks an array.

The spread operator can be used with other iterable data types like strings and objects.

The spread operator is applied in the following scenarios:

When you need to copy an array

 let arr = ["a", "b", "c"];
 let newArr = [...arr];

 console.log(newArr) // ["a", "b", "c"]

Its that's easy, all you need to do is to add a preceding ... to an existing array and it simply removes all the values from the array.

Adding array elements to another array

const arr = ["a", "b"];
const newArr = [...arr, "c", "d"];
console.log(newArr) //["a", "b", "c", "d"]

The values of arr is transferred to newArr.

Splitting Strings

 let name = 'Runo';
 console.log(...name) // 'R' 'u' 'n' 'o'

Merge Objects

 const obj1 = {
       name: "Runo"
}

const obj2 = {
       age: 19
}

const obj3 = {
     ...obj1,
     ...obj2
}

console.log(obj3) // {name: "Runo", age: 19}

Summary

The rest operatorstores the remaining data passed into a function in an array. In other words, it creates a new array. On the other hand, The spread operator simply works with an existing array or iterable like strings and objects, It's commonly used in modern frameworks like ReactJsto copy data from state.

I hope this helps someone, Happy Coding fam!

JavaScript's friendliest for loop: for...of loop

Runo-saduwa — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 17:53:23 +0000

For many years in JavaScript, we have been iterating over iterables using the for, for-in and forEach(in the case of arrays).

I can't imagine how hard programming will be without these structures, they have indeed saved lives but ES6 is here again, with yet another powerful, cleaner and in my opinion, the most friendliest for loop: the for...of loop.

The for...of loop allows iteration over iterable objects such as arrays, strings, maps, etc with lesser and cleaner syntax.

Let's consider a regular for-loop for iterating over an array:

  let names = ["runo", "peter", "saduwa"];

for(let i=0; i<names.length; i++){
 console.log(names[i]);
}
// runo
// peter
// saduwa

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this style, But with the for...of syntax we can achieve the same thing without having to initialize a counter variable i to keep track of the loop. See how we can use the for...of syntax to make our code much cleaner and readable:

  let names = ["runo", "peter", "saduwa"];

for(let name of names){
 console.log(name);
}
// runo
// peter
// saduwa

See how clean the code looks, the name variable represents each element in the names array.

Note: the value you loop over using the for...of loop must be an iterable. An iterable is simply an object that is able to produce an iterator. Examples of iterables in JavaScript are the arrays, strings, maps and sets, etc. Also node lists from the Dom tree.

Simple iteration over a string:

  let name = "Runo";

for(let letter of name){
console.log(letter)
}

// R
// u
// n
// o

Summary

The for...of loop is the latest for-loop in the JavaScript world that will help developers iterate over iterables such as arrays, strings, maps and sets with lesser and cleaner code. It also improves code readability with its focused syntax.

Happy Coding!!

Reverse a String with JavaScript

Runo-saduwa — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:15:38 +0000

Today marks my 10th month anniversary in software development and with my little experience i must admit that one of the ways of effectively assessing the depth of your knowledge in a programming language is by solving algorithms, that explains why most tech companies test applicants with algorithms. Solving algorithms will train you on how to manipulate data and as we all know, data is the basis of programming and your ability to manipulate data gives you the power to solve problems.

This is my first post here on Dev and i will like to keep it simple. I'm dedicating this post to every developer who is willing to learn how to Reverse a string. Very Basic!

I Have Two ways of Solving this

As we already know, In programming there are several roads to one destination. the only differences between these roads is the ease at which it could get you to your destination. In this case i have two roads/ways:

The not so straight-forward way: Using the for loop
The straight-forward way: Using Array methods

The not so straight-forward way: Using the for loop

Ok so here we go, the first thing we'll do is to make a function to contain our code, this should be done to make the code reusable and clean. So here we'll simply name our function Reverse and pass in a parameter that will represent the string, lets name the parameter str.

      function Reverse(str){

     }

Your code should look like this. Great!, we're making progress.

Now lets fill our function block with some logic.

By using a loop, we will simply create an array from the string, by using
the split() method and we'll store the the array in a variable called arr.

     function Reverse(str){
     let arr = str.split('');
   }

Note: we inserted an empty string in the parentheses to split the characters (incuding white space) individually.

Next up, we need a variable to store the reversed word after the looping is completed. so lets declare a variable named reversed and assign an empty string to this value!

function Reverse(str){
     let arr = str.split('');
     let reversed = '';
   }

Finally, where the magic happens!, we're going to set our loop to run from the end of the array to the beginning of the array! this could be tricky, but watch close, you'll get it.

in this case we'll use a for loop and remember our for loop takes in 3 parameters.

the initializer: We are starting our loop from the back, so our initializer which is i in this case is assigned to the index value of the last element in the array!

let i = arr.lenght-1;

N.B: Taking 1 out of the total length of an array will give us the index number of the last element because arrays start count from 0

the Condition: the condition if simply, if i is greater than or equal to 0, then the loo should keep running!;

i >= 0;

Decrement: This part tells the i the next direction to take, in this case i is decreasing because we are looping from the last to the first element!

i--

lets put all of this together in our for loop and fix the for loop in the Reverse function!

    function Reverse(str){
    let arr = str.split('');
    let reversed = '';
    for(let i = arr.lenght-1; i >= 0; i--){
    }
  }

finally, all we need to do is to append arr[i] to reversed, like so:

  reversed += arr[i];

outside the for loop block, return reversed and your final code should look like this:

 function Reverse(str){
   let arr = str.split('');
   let reversed = '';
   for(let i = arr.length-1; i >= 0 ; i--){
     reversed += arr[i];
   }
  return reversed;
 }

  //If every thing went well then Reverse('runo') must return `onur`

The straight-forward way: Using Array methods

Here, we'll simply chain three methods to the string.

To achieve this we'll declare a variable called reversed and apply the following steps to it

first we'll apply the split('') method to the string to form an array of individual string charaters
then we'll chain the reverse() method to the split('') method to make the array reverse.
then we'll chain join('') to reverse() method and finally
return reversed!

    function Reverse(str){
    let reversed = str.split('').reverse().join('')
    return reversed;
   }


   Reverse('Runo') //onuR

Woo hoo!!!, this looks much cleaner and depicts that you actually know the language more!, so i guess everyone loves the straight forward way!

I hope you enjoyed this!, i will be dropping solutions to different type of algorithms (basic, intermediate and advanced), so watch out!

Happy halloween and Happy Coding!

DEV Community: Runo-saduwa

2020: Year in review

School

Career

Money

Investments

Relationships

COVID19

Talks and Tecnical writing

Wins

Notable Losses

Gratitude

Go variables: the bare minimum knowledge

First things first, The var keyword

How to declare a variable

How to initialize a variable

Implicit initialization

The short assignment statement

How to Install React Native with Expo - Quick & Easy

STEP 1 - Install Node.js

STEP 2 - Install the Expo CLI

STEP 3 - Create a new React Native project

STEP 4 - Running your React Native application

The var keyword

let, const & Block scoping

What is block scoping?!

let & const: Similarities

Block Scoping

One declaration per scope

Let & const: Differences

Variable initialization

Variable reassignment

Summary

Default Function Parameters (ES6)

ES6 Rest and Spread Operators

Table of Content:

Rest Operators

When You Should Use the Rest Operators

Rest parameters to the rescue

Spread Operators

When you need to copy an array

Adding array elements to another array

Splitting Strings

Merge Objects

Summary

JavaScript's friendliest for loop: for...of loop

Summary

Reverse a String with JavaScript

I Have Two ways of Solving this

The not so straight-forward way: Using the for loop

The straight-forward way: Using Array methods

First things first, The `var` keyword