Chapter 16 Data Representation
Syllabus sections covered: 3.1 (3.1.1–3.1.3)
Teaching resources
Topics Syllabus 40 min. Resources in the Resources on
sections periods coursebook or ebook this CD-ROM
1 User-defined types 3.1.1 4 Exam-style Question 1 Worksheet 16.1
Ebook Question 16.1
2 File organisation 3.1.2 4 Exam-style Question 2 Worksheet 16.1
Ebook Question 16.2
3 Real numbers 3.1.3 8 Worked Example 16.01 Worksheet 16.1
Task 16.01 Worksheet 16.2
Exam-style Question 3
Ebook Question 16.3
Ebook Question 16.4
Ebook Question 16.5
Past exam paper questions
Paper Series Question Topic
9608/31 June 2015 3 user-defined types
9608/33 June 2015 4 user-defined types
9608/33 June 2015 4 file organisation
9608/31 Nov 2015 1 real numbers
9608/32 Nov 2015 1 real numbers
16.01 Topic 1 User-defined types
Coursebook section 16.01 User-defined data types
Teaching ideas
Students need to gain knowledge and understanding. A presentation is all that is
needed provided that it covers both the concepts of the different data types and
some examples of how they might be used.
Supporting notes
The syllabus is both very specific and somewhat confusing. It is specific because it
identifies the particular data types that are to be considered. It is confusing because
the content is only of significance in a programming context. You could expect to
deal with the theoretical underpinning in this part of the syllabus but the wording of
the syllabus seems to imply practical use, which you would expect to be in the
problem-solving and programming part of the syllabus. Furthermore, some of the
data types mentioned such as the set and the enumerated data types have no
specific reference anywhere else in the syllabus. Clearly you need to make a
judgement about what to include in this topic and whether to present it in isolation
or combine it where possible with the programming learning.
Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:
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• The user who creates a user-defined data type is a programmer.
• User-defined data types are necessary because each one is specific to a
particular program so cannot be selected from types provided by a
programming language.
• A composite data type is one that has a definition that references at least one
other type
Questions or tasks suitable for homework
Exam-style Question 1
Ebook Question 16.1
June 2015 Question Paper 31 Q3
June 2015 Question Paper 33 Q4
16.03 Topic 2 File organisation
Coursebook section 16.02 File organisation
Teaching ideas
The aim for students is to gain knowledge and understanding. A presentation is
needed.
Supporting notes
The same statement can be made about the syllabus here as for the previous topic
but the problem is much less acute. If you ignore the final bullet point in section
3.1.2 of the syllabus then the clear requirement is to provide students with the
opportunity to understand the concepts. The only decision you then have to make is
whether you wish to deal with the theory in a stand-alone way. The alternative is to
combine it with the practical programming featured in section 4.3.2 of the syllabus
and covered in Section 26.03 of the coursebook.
Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:
• In a binary file the contents are organised on the basis of records.
• A record has a defined number of fields containing data values.
• In a serial file the records are not ordered.
• In a sequential file records are in a sequence.
• In a direct-access file records are positioned in accordance with a calculation
made by an algorithm.
• Both sequential and direct-access files require a key field which is used when
data in the file is being accessed.
Common mistakes
It is easy for students to confuse serial and sequential because in everyday use
these have very similar meanings.
Questions or tasks suitable for homework
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Exam-style Question 2
Ebook Question 16.2
June 2015 Question Paper 33 Q4
16.03 Topic 3 Real numbers
Coursebook section 16.03 Real numbers
Teaching ideas
Students need to have knowledge and understanding but also the skill to apply the
knowledge. A presentation is needed, followed by practical paper-based exercises. It
is likely to be most beneficial if the subject is introduced in stages with alternating
presentation and practical exercise.
Supporting notes
The syllabus is very detailed and therefore there is no problem in identifying suitable
content for a learning programme focusing on floating-point representation. What
you also have to consider is that the syllabus has some notable omissions. The
limited syllabus reference to fixed-point real numbers and to binary arithmetic has
been mentioned earlier in both Chapter 1 and Chapter 5. This point in the learning
programme is the last opportunity to fill in the gaps. In particular, the floating-point
representation uses a fixed-point value for the mantissa. It is therefore important
that students are familiar with such a representation and particularly how it can
handle both positive and negative values.
Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:
• In a floating-point representation a defined number of bits store a value for the
mantissa and the remaining bits store a value for the exponent.
• The format can be illustrated by using a two's complement fixed-point value for
the mantissa and a two's complement integer value for the exponent.
• The value for the exponent can be positive or negative irrespective of the sign
of the number represented.
• If the number of bits used to represent the mantissa is increased the precision
of the stored value increases but if the number of bits used to represent the
exponent is increased the range of numbers that can be stored increases.
• Maximum precision is obtained if the representation is normalised, which
involves using the maximum possible magnitude for the mantissa.
• A normalised representation has different values, either 10 or 01, for the two
most significant bits in the mantissa.
Common mistakes
Students have always found this subject difficult. It is a subject with a threshold of
learning. A student has no hope unless they are prepared to put sufficient study time
in to get over this threshold.
High achievers
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High achievers can be expected to be able to tackle all aspects as defined in the
syllabus. In addition they could be asked to investigate the IEEE standard which is
used in most processors and is somewhat different from the format suggested in the
coursebook.
Questions or tasks suitable for homework
Task 16.01
Exam-style Question 3
Ebook Question 16.3
Ebook Question 16.4
Ebook Question 16.5
November 2015 Question Paper 31 Q1
November 2015 Question Paper 32 Q1
Specimen Paper 3 Q1
16.04 Recommended reading and resources
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-
level_Computing/AQA/Problem_Solving,_Programming,_Data_Representation_and_P
ractical_Exercise/Fundamentals_of_Programming/User-defined_data_types
https://cs.wmich.edu/~gupta/teaching/cs4850/sumII06/lecture%20notes/lec09%20c
h06%20data%20types%20072406.pdf
http://wikieducator.org/images/e/eb/File_org.pdf
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-
level_Computing/AQA/Problem_Solving,_Programming,_Operating_Systems,_Databa
ses_and_Networking/Real_Numbers/Floating_point_numbers
© Cambridge University Press 2016
