Structured English

Structured English is the use of the English language with the syntax of structured programming. Thus structured English aims at getting the benefits of both the programming logic and natural language. Program logic helps to attain precision while natural language helps in getting the convenience of spoken languages.

Contents

Elements

Structured English or "pseudocode" consists of the following elements:

  1. Operation statements written as English phrases executed from the top down
  2. Conditional blocks indicated by keywords such as IF, THEN, and ELSE
  3. Repetition blocks indicated by keywords such as DO, WHILE, and UNTIL

Use the following guidelines when writing Structured English:

  1. Statements should be clear and unambiguous
  2. Use one line per logical element
  3. All logic should be expressed in operational, conditional, and repetition blocks
  4. Logical blocks should be indented to show relationship
  5. Keywords should be capitalized

Examples of common keywords

START, BEGIN, END, STOP, DO, WHILE, DO WHILE, FOR, UNTIL, DO UNTIL, REPEAT, END WHILE, END UNTIL, END REPEAT, IF THEN, IF, ELSE, IF ELSE, END IF, THEN, ELSE THEN, ELSE IF, SO, CASE, EQUAL, LT, LE, GT, GE, NOT, TRUE, FALSE, AND, OR, XOR, GET, WRITE, PUT, UPDATE, CLOSE, OPEN, CREATE, DELETE, EXIT, FILE, READ, EOF, EOT, WITH,RETURN

Example of Structured English

A bank will grant loan under the following conditions

  1. If a customer has an account with the bank and had no loan outstanding, loan will be granted.
  2. If a customer has an account with the bank but some amount is outstanding from previous loans then loan will be granted if special approval is given.
  3. Reject all loan applications in all other cases.
   IF customer has a Bank Account THEN
     IF Customer has no dues from previous account THEN
         Allow loan facility
     ELSE
       IF Management Approval is obtained THEN
         Allow loan facility
       ELSE
         Reject
       ENDIF
     ENDIF
   ELSE
     Reject
   ENDIF

Other Specification Tools

System processes at a lower level involve lot of computations and require more precision and clarity. This can be achieved with tools like:

  1. Decision Tree,
  2. Decision tables, and

See also