A constant can be a number, like 50 or 3.6, a character, like ‘a’ or ‘$’ or a character string like “MakerClub loves strings”. 

Constants are also used in spreadsheet applications to place non-changing values in cells.

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For instance, if you arrived at makerclub.org and we wanted to ask your name, because we’re friendly like that,  we would get a little text box on the screen to ask what you name is. We might call this box ‘Yourname’ – when you put your name in the box, I could then ‘call’ up your details at anytime by using the ‘Yourname’ variable that I had created.

Variables are one of the most important concepts to understand in programming, storing and then calling up information is what every website is based on. Variables mean that programmers don’t have to actually write in all the data themselves, they can instead use variables to represent it.

Every variable has a name and a data type. A variable’s data type indicates what sort of value the variable represents, such as whether it is an integer, a floating-point number, or a character. Click on the links to find out more about these.

The opposite of a variable is a constant. Constants are values that never change. Because of their inflexibility, constants are used less often than variables in programming.

Like most things in programming, it’s difficult to explain, but quite easy to do. If you really want to get to grips with programming, design or electronics, take one of our MakerClub courses. They are easy to learn, fun to build and you’ll get the building blocks you need to create your own connected products.

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An IDE is a software application that gives programmers an all in one space to do their development. It is essentially a graphical user interface for all your programming. There are IDE’s that are for multiple programming languages and some that have been created specifically for a single one, such as Arduino’s IDE, which is just for C++.  
Most modern IDE’s can check your code for errors and even make suggestions for improvements. An IDE will give you access to different ‘libraries’ that offer coding shortcuts for specific languages.      
Most common features, such as debugging, version control and data structure browsing, help a developer quickly execute actions without switching to other applications. At MakerClub we have developed our own IDE which is displayed within your browser – you can give it a quick trial now by clicking here.

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