Flowchart

What is a Flowchart?
Flowchart is a graphical representation of an algorithm. Programmers often use it as a program-planning tool to solve a problem. It makes use of symbols which are connected among them to indicate the flow of information and processing.
The process of drawing a flowchart for an algorithm is known as “flowcharting”.

Basic Symbols used in Flowchart Designs

1. Terminal: The oval symbol indicates Start, Stop and Halt in a program’s logic flow. A pause/halt is generally used in a program logic under some error conditions. Terminal is the first and last symbols in the flowchart.
   
2. Input/Output: A parallelogram denotes any function of input/output type. Program instructions that take input from input devices and display output on output devices are indicated with parallelogram in a flowchart.
   
3. Processing: A box represents arithmetic instructions. All arithmetic processes such as adding, subtracting, multiplication and division are indicated by action or process symbol.
   
4. Decision Diamond symbol represents a decision point. Decision based operations such as yes/no question or true/false are indicated by diamond in flowchart.
   
5. Connectors: Whenever flowchart becomes complex or it spreads over more than one page, it is useful to use connectors to avoid any confusions. It is represented by a circle.
   
6. Flow lines: Flow lines indicate the exact sequence in which instructions are executed. Arrows represent the direction of flow of control and relationship among different symbols of flowchart.

Example : Draw a flowchart to input two numbers from user and display the largest of two numbers

// C program to find largest of two numbers

  

#include <stdio.h>

  

int main()

{

    int num1, num2, largest;

  

    /*Input two numbers*/

    printf("Enter two numbers:\n");

    scanf("%d%d", &num1, &num2);

  

    /*check if a is greater than b*/

    if (num1 > num2)

        largest = num1;

    else

        largest = num2;

  

    /*Print the largest number*/

    printf("%d", largest);

  

    return 0;

}




Output

Enter two numbers:
10 30

30