How should I translate "take as input"?

Question

"take as input.."

I have no idea what that means..

for example, I extracted a sentence from Google by searching, such as

"Describe an algorithm that takes as input a list of n integers".

What is the meaning of the sentence?

Answer 1

In writing that sentence, I assume that you are a programmer. To 'take as input' means to accept it into your algorithm.

In C, you might express this notion as

int algorithm(int arrayAsInput[])

{

. . .

return output;

}

Answer 2

It means that is the nature of the data that goes into the algorithm.

If the algorithm were a function expressable as f(x1, x2,.....xn), it would be the set of numbers x1 through xn, which is also called the "argument" of that function.

Answer 3

"Describe an algorithm that takes as input a list of n integers".

The sentence can be re-written as:

"Describe an algorithm. This algorithm needs to accept input. That input is a list of n integers."