CSCI 261 - Programming Concepts

Fall 2018 - AXC - People Validator

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This assignment is due by Thursday, December 6, 2018, 11:59 PM.

· Instructions · Rubric · Submission ·

The Purpose


This extra credit homework allows you to earn 20 extra credit homework points. To do so, you must demonstrate a proficiency in classes, file input and output, pointers, and dynamically allocating memory and arrays.

The Person Class


Write a Person class in C++, with separate Person.h and Person.cpp files. Your Person class should have the following private data members:
  • first name (string)
  • last name (string)
  • gender (character)
  • age (integer)
  • height (double)
  • likes monster movies (bool)
  • likes cantaloupe (bool)
In addition, your Person class should have the following member functions:
  • A default constructor. You can decide what to initialize the private data members to.
  • You do not need to add getters and setters for every data member. Instead, only add accessor functions that you actually use in your main().
  • An input function that reads in the data members, in the order listed above. The function should allow the user to send in either the standard input stream or a file input stream as an argument to the function, depending on the user's choice. (An example call would be person.input(cin);.)
  • An output function that writes the data members, in the order listed above. Provide appropriate text so reading the output makes sense. The function should allow the user to send in either the standard output stream or a file output stream as an argument to the function, depending on the user's choice. (An example call would be person.output(cout);.)
  • A validate function that tests whether a person's data meets your criteria for a potential coding partner. You should choose the gender (male or female), with an age between 18 and 40 (inclusive), the height under 7.5 feet (else the 'person' is likely a monster), and someone who likes to eat cantaloupe while watching monster movies.
NOTE: you can assume the file you are reading in is correct, e.g., only 'M' or 'F' is given for gender.
You may want to consider NotePad or WordPad on your computer to write your code for your Person class. Once you feel good about what you've written, copy the code into your project. Doing this will help you see where you might make mistakes on upcoming exams. (No, pointers and dynamic memory will not be on any exam, but classes will!)

Your main() Requirements:


Before we allocate space for our persons, we need to find out how many we need. First, we'll read through the file, counting how many valid persons there are. Then, we'll iterate through the file again, this time reading the valid persons into a dynamically allocated array.

As usual, we recommend you use the "Incremental Build" software development model. To encourage this use, we break down your main() requirements into steps. We suggest you throughly test each step before moving to the next step.

Step 1: How many valid people are in the file?

  • Create an integer called validCount, and a pointer to this integer. To receive full credit for this assignment, you must ONLY access this variable for counting through the pointer to your counting variable. (We know, kind of silly ... but the point is to give you more pointer practice!)
  • Create a Person object.
  • Open the file PersonFile.dat, a file that was created by 11-year old Emma Camp-Oberhauser. Until the end of file, read each person within the file (using your Person's input() function), and test whether the Person details read in are valid or not (using your Person's validate() function). If valid, add one to validCount (via your pointer to validCount).
  • Take a moment to print the number of valid People in the file. It should be an odd number, between 12 and 14.

Step 2: Add valid people to your new people array.

  • Use dynamic memory to allocate an array of people on the heap that is large enough to hold the number of valid people determined in Step 1. Do not over-allocate the array to hold all the people in the data file.
  • We now need to rewind the reading location of PersonFile.dat to the beginning of the file. To do this, you could close() the file, and then re-open it; but doesn't that seem a bit foolish? Thus, instead, use clear() and seekg(0,ios::beg) functions on your input file stream. These two functions will clear the 'end of file reached' and set the next position to read from equal to the top of the file.
  • Declare a new integer variable with initial value zero; this variable will represent the current element offset inside your dynamic array.
  • In a loop (until the end of file):
    • Read each person within the file (using your Person's input() function).
    • Test whether the Person details read in are valid or not (using your Person's validate() function).
    • If valid, assign that Person to the array (and increment your new integer variable).
    • If not valid, print that Person's details to the screen (using your Person's output() function).
There are exactly 19 invalid people in the data file. At this point you will know by the program output whether you have found them all.

Step 3: Sorting your people array.

We now want to sort your valid people array. We've previsouly discussed the selectionSort() algorithm (a simple sorting algorithm), and provided brief pseudocode for implementing it. Put the function prototypes above your main() and function implementations below. Create these prototypes and function headers so that they operate on your People array, with the end goal of sorting your valid People array by each person's height. For full credit, you should pass a pointer to the array to your selectionSort() function, and use this pointer within the function to access array elements. However, we suggest you first implement the sorting feature using the [ ] notation that you are familiar with, and then (if desired) modify the function to use pointers (not [ ] ). NOTE: getting the function to work with [ ] is worth one point; getting the function to work with * is worth two points.

Step 4: Print a few valid people.

Using your Person's output() function, print the following three valid people:
  • the person with the smallest height (first element in your array)
  • the person with the median height (the middle element in your array; we've already confirmed that the number of elements is odd)
  • the person with the largest height (last element in your array)

Step 5: Good practice.

There are two things you should do to end the program. First, close your file input stream. Second, free the memory allocated by your program to hold the valid people. Be sure to use the delete[] operation, not delete without [] .

Grading Rubric

Your submission will be graded according to the following rubric.

PointsRequirement Description
2 All code submitted properly.
2 All labs completed and submitted
11 Assignment created with dynamic arrays and meets requirements above.
3 Functional requirements above met.
2 (1) Comments used
(2) Coding style followed
(3) Appropriate variable names, constants, and data types used
(4) Instructions followed
20 Total Points

This assignment is due by Thursday, December 6, 2018, 11:59 PM.

Submission

Always, always, ALWAYS update the header comments at the top of your main.cpp file. And if you ever get stuck, remember that there is LOTS of help available. The following instructions are copied from How to Submit Homework.


It is critical that you follow these steps when submitting homework.

If you do not follow these instructions, your assignment will receive a major deduction. Why all the fuss? Because we have several hundred of these assignments to grade, and we use computer tools to automate as much of the process as possible. If you deviate from these instructions, our grading tools will not work. And that makes us very unhappy. And when we're unhappy, we give penalties. Thus, make us happy.

Submission Instructions


Here are step-by-step instructions for submitting your homework properly:
  1. File and folder names are extremely important in this process. Please double-check carefully, to ensure things are named correctly.
    1. The top-level folder of your project must be named SetXC
    2. Inside SetXC, create 2 sub-folders that are required for this Set. The name of each sub-folder is defined in that Set (e.g. LXC, and AXC).
    3. Copy your main.cpp , additional header & source files, plus the CMakeLists.txt file into the subdirectories of SetXC (steps 1-2), zip this SetXC folder (steps 3-4), and then submit the zipped file (steps 5-11) to Canvas.
    4. For example, when you zip/submit SetXC, there will be 2 sub-folders called LXC, and AXC inside the SetXC folder, and each of these sub-folders will have a file called main.cpp, additional header & source files, plus the CMakeLists.txt file .

  2. Using Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer), find the file named "main.cpp" located inside the folder for the particular lab or homework assignment you will submit.

    STOP: Are you really sure you are viewing the correct assignment's folder?

  3. Now, for AXC, right click on the main.cpp to copy the file. Then, return to the SetXC/AXC folder and right click to paste the file. In other words, put a copy of your homework's main.cpp source code into the SetXC/AXC folder. Repeat this for each additional header & source file you have with this assignment, plus CMakeLists.txt.

    Follow the same steps for LXC, to put a copy of your lab's main.cpp into the SetXC/LXC folder.

    STOP: Are you sure your SetXC folder now has all your code to submit?

  4. Now, right-click on the "SetXC" folder.
    1. In the pop-up menu that opens, move the mouse "Send to..." and expand the sub-menu.
    2. In the sub-menu that opens, select "Compressed (zipped) folder".

    STOP: Are you really sure you are zipping a SetXC folder with sub-folders that each contain a main.cpp file in it?

  5. After the previous step, you should now see a "SetXC.zip" file.

  6. Now visit the Canvas page for this course and click the "Assignments" button in the sidebar.

  7. Find SetXC, click on it, find the "Submist Assignment" area, and then click the "Choose File" button.

  8. Find the "SetXC.zip" file created earlier and click the "Open" button.

    STOP: Are you really sure you are selecting the right homework assignment? Are you double-sure?

  9. WAIT! There's one more super-important step. Click on the blue "Submit Assignment" button to submit your homework.

  10. No, really, make sure you click the "Submit Assignment" button to actually submit your homework. Clicking the "Choose File" button in the previous step kind of makes it feel like you're done, but you must click the Submit button as well! And you must allow the file time to upload before you turn off your computer!

  11. Canvas should say "Submitted!". Click "Submission Details" and you can download the zip file you just submitted. In other words, verify you submitted what you think you submitted!
In summary, you must zip the "SetXC" folder and only the "SetXC" folder, this zip folder must have several sub-folders, you must name all these folders correctly, you must submit the correct zip file for this homework, and you must click the "Submit Assignment" button. Not doing these steps is like bringing your homework to class but forgetting to hand it in. No concessions will be made for incorrectly submitted work. If you incorrectly submit your homework, we will not be able to give you full credit. And that makes us unhappy.


This assignment is due by Thursday, December 6, 2018, 11:59 PM.

Last Updated: 05/30/18 23:48


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