Multiple Problem Plural Data
The plural data concept can be generalized from the single
problem situation to solving several similar problems simultaneously.
The important aspect is that the statements of the plural
program must be common to all rows of the table(s). Thus plural data
processing can be applied to multiple problems if there is one problem per
row. Consider the following two problems:
The results of an experiment yielded 25.2 cm. The true
measure was 26.5 cm. What is the percent of error?
The true mass of an object is 450.4 grams. An experiment to
determine the mass yielded 420.6 grams. What was the percent
of the error?
Both problems use the same two equations:
error = true value - experimental value
percent error = (error/true value) X 100
The answers to the problems can be computed at the same time. Consider
the table and program:
--------------------------------------
|true |experimental| error |percent|
|value |value | |error |
--------------------------------------
| 26.5 | 25.2 | | |
--------------------------------------
|450.4 | 420.6 | | |
--------------------------------------
error$ = true value$ - experimental value$;
percent error$ = (error$/true value$) X 100;
Factoring and Programming Efficiency