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Computer Programming 143

Practical 2

2017

Aim of Practical 2:

1. Code while loops.

2. Code for loops.

For some tongue-in-cheek flowcharts visit xkcd, the links are: xkcd: Flow Charts and
xkcd: Good Code

“while(1); //So that is what infinity looks like.”

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 Instructions

1. Attendance is compulsory for all the practical sessions of your assigned group.
See the study guide for more details.

2. The last section (usually the last 30 minutes) of the practical will be used for a
test.

3. If more than three tests have been missed for what ever reason, you will receive
an INCOMPLETE for the subject. See the study guide for more details.

4. You must do all assignments on your own. Students are encouraged to help each
other understand the problems and solutions, but each should write his/her own
code. By simply copying someone else’s code or solutions, you will not build an
understanding of the work.

5. You are responsible for your own progress. Ensure that you understand the prac-
tical work. Check your work against the memorandum that will be posted on
Wednesday afternoons on learn.sun.ac.za.

6. Use H:\CP143 as the Eclipse workspace folder for all projects but it is highly sug-
gested that you use a flash drive to backup all work done.

7. Create a new project for each assignment. See Creating an Eclipse Project in the
Basic Eclipse Project Handling Notes for instructions on how to do just that.

8. Include a comment block at the top of each source file according to the format
given. It must include the correct filename and date, your name and student
number, the copying declaration, and the title of the source file.

9. Indent your code correctly! Making your code readable is not beautification, it
is a time and life saving habit. Adhere to the standards (refer to the documents
on SUNLearn). You can use Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+I to auto-indent.

10. Comment your code sufficiently well. It is required for you and others to under-
stand what you have done.

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Assignment A

Goal:
Use while and if statements to write a simple menu which gives the user a
number of choices.

Getting started

1. Create a project named Assignment2A. Make sure that this is the only open project
in the workspace before compiling the program.

2. Include the standard comment block above your main function. Also, comment
your whole program appropriately.

3. Read the complete question (point 1 to point 6) before you start programming.

4. Either draw a program flowchart or write the pseudocode before you start pro-
gramming. A demi/instructor may ask to see this when they come to assist you.

5. Below are two sections: a description of what your program should do, and some
guidelines for how to write the program. If you think you know how to write
the program after just reading the program description, you can start program-
ming. Otherwise, read the programming guidelines (after the sample outputs) be-
fore starting.

Program description

1. Print a menu with three options for the user: the first to do some circle calculations,
the second to do some triangle calculations and the third to exit the program. See
point 6 on the next page for an example on how the output should look.

2. Allow the user to enter their choice. Use if statements to execute the operation of
their choice. Display an error message if the choice is not valid.

3. After executing the user’s choice (or displaying an error message), display the menu
again. This sequence of displaying the menu, waiting for user input and then ex-
ecuting commands according to that input should repeat till the user enters the
Exit Program option. You should implement this using a while loop.

4. If the user’s choice was circle calculations, ask for the radius of a circle and read it
in as a float. Display the circumference and the area of the circle. Display only the
first four digits after the decimal point for each. Use the value 3.1416 for π.

5. If the user’s choice was triangle calculations, ask for three integers. Determine if
they could be the sides of a right triangle (remember Pythagoras!), with the first
side entered being the hypotenuse (skuinssy). Print a statement to display your
finding.

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6. Sample run of the program:

Menu Options:
1. Circle Calculations
2. Triangle Calculations
3. Exit Program

Enter your choice: 1

Please enter the radius of the circle: 7.5
The circumference is 47.1240 and the area is 176.7150.

Menu Options:
1. Circle Calculations
2. Triangle Calculations
3. Exit Program

Enter your choice: 2

Enter hypotenuse: 5
Enter side A: 4
Enter side B: 3
The first number is the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

Menu Options:
1. Circle Calculations
2. Triangle Calculations
3. Exit Program

Enter your choice: 2

Enter hypotenuse: 3
Enter side A: 4
Enter side B: 5
The first number is NOT the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

Menu Options:
1. Circle Calculations
2. Triangle Calculations
3. Exit Program

Enter your choice: 2

Enter hypotenuse: 9
Enter side A: 7
Enter side B: 8
The first number is NOT the hypotenuse of a right triangle.

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 Menu Options:
1. Circle Calculations
2. Triangle Calculations
3. Exit Program

Enter your choice: 4

An invalid menu option.

Menu Options:
1. Circle Calculations
2. Triangle Calculations
3. Exit Program

Enter your choice: 3

Quitting...

Programming guidelines

1. Start by writing code that prints the menu on screen and asks the user for his
choice.

2. Either add an if..else statement which checks what the user entered, and prints
a message on the screen saying what the user chose (You’ll delete the printf state-
ment printing this message later); or alternatively, use the debugger with a break-
point to check the user choice (after the scanf instruction).
Now your program output should look like this, if for example the user chose op-
tion 1:
Menu Options:
1. Circle Calculations
2. Triangle Calculations
3. Exit Program

Enter your choice: 1

User chose circle calculations

3. If you have used extra printf statements, then you can delete them under each
option in the if..else else statement. Update your program to perform the ne-
cessary calculations and to display the results.

4. Now enclose the code that prints the menu and the if..else statement in a while
loop, so that the program will keep on executing until the user enters a 3. Import-
ant: Make sure that the program first prints the menu, and then checks if it should
exit.

5. Ensure that you copy the Assignment2A project folder to a flash drive as a backup.

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Assignment B

Goal:
Use for loops to print figures.

Getting started

1. Create a project named Assignment2B. Make sure that this is the only open project
in the workspace before compiling the program.

2. Include the standard comment block above your main function. Also, comment
your whole program appropriately.

3. Read the complete question before you start programming.

4. Either draw a program flowchart or write the pseudocode before you start pro-
gramming. A demi/lecturer may ask to see this when they come to assist you.

Program description

1. The following program displays a square of 5 x 5 stars. If you would like to change
the size of the grid you would have to change the code or write a new program
or function. This is known as hard coding. A far better way would be to print it
dynamically. Besides, what will happen if you want a grid of 100 x 100? You will
have to count very carefully to put one hundred stars in one printf (to make the
columns) and then copy that printf 100 times (to make the rows). Using for loops
to do this job for you makes much more sense.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(void)
{
//printing a grid of size 5 x 5
printf("\n* * * * *");
printf("\n* * * * *");
printf("\n* * * * *");
printf("\n* * * * *");
printf("\n* * * * *");
return 0;
}

2. Write a program that reads in a grid size from the user. Print a grid of stars accord-
ingly. To be able to do this, you will need two for loops, one inside of the other. The
outer for loop will be for the rows, the inner for loop will print the columns. Only
one star and a space will be printed at a time.

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 3. Sample output of the program:
Sample 1:
Enter the grid size: 2

* *
* *

Sample 2:
Enter the grid size: 13

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Programming guidelines

1. First change the given program so that it contains a single printf statement, which
prints five stars. This printf should be inside a for loop, so the statement will be
executed five times to print five rows of stars.

2. Now change the printf statement to print only one star, and put it inside a second
for loop, inside the first one, so that five stars will be printed next to each other
during each iteration of the outer for loop. Make sure that your for loops have
curly brackets where necessary, and that newlines are printed in the correct place
in your code.

3. Finally, change your code so that it does not print a 5 x 5 grid every time, but asks
the user for a grid size and then prints a grid of that size.

4. Ensure that you copy the Assignment2B project folder to a flash drive as a backup.

Something to think about: Exercise 4.16 on page 167 in the prescribed textbook is a
beautiful example of really getting to grips with for loops. Give it a go.