What is syntax? Or a syntax error on a calculator?

Question

Im not sure what it is so I hope im right when I use this example. If you were to do something like 1 divided by 0 or enter 99999999+1 on a calculator you would get a syntax error because the calculator was no programmed to do so. Just because the user is not fallowing a certain protocol or set of rules set by the calculator it will get an error? I'm trying to get a basic idea, I know there might be more to the word but again, i'm still not sure.

Answer 1

No, that's correct.



Think of it like this...the numbers are the calculator's words. The syntax is the sentence you're saying to it. If you say something it can't understand, you get a syntax error.



Same with computers. Instead of numbers, it's commands or a programming language. In programming, syntax is the method in which commands are passed to the interpreter. If the syntax isn't formatted just right, the programming won't work.

Answer 2

When you receive a syntax error on the calculator, it usually indicates that you either made a typographical error or tried to perform an operation in such a way that the calculator does not understand it or does not have an algorithm to use to compute it.



1 divided by 0 is an interesting example though. Even though your syntax was, in fact, correct (you pressed a number key, then the division key, and then another number key), the operation is not possible to compute.



It would actually be more correct for the calculator to give you a "Does not compute" error or something, rather than a syntax error.



As for 99999999+1, there's not really a problem with the syntax there either, it's just that the calculator probably doesn't have enough room to display that many digits on the screen at once.



A real syntax error might be something like this: 100 + + 1



That's an ambiguous expression. Reading that, you're not really sure of how to compute it, and neither is the calculator. I broke syntax there. I broke the rules governing how we represent mathematical expressions.



A real syntax error occurs when you do not express yourself clearly. It's the same in mathematics as it is in language, if that makes a better analogy.

Answer 3

Usually, things like the examples you provided are not considered syntax errors, those are overflow errors.



A syntax error is something like this:

100+*



or this:



50 * (20 + 3(



It's a statement that the calculator can't evaluate because it doesn't make sense(according to the calculator's or the computer's rules, which usually sync up with regular math)

Answer 4

A syntax error is generally when the computer/device doesn't understand the command you giving it. The examples you gave are "divide by zero" and "overflow" errors.