Assignment #3: Static Methods, Parameter Passing, & Return Values

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CSC 110: Fundamentals of Programming I
Assignment #3: Static Methods, Parameter Passing,
& Return Values

How to hand in your work
Submit the requested files for part (b) (see below) through the Assignment #3 link
on the CSC 110 conneX site. Please make sure you follow all the required steps for
submission (including confirming your submission). Part (a) is not marked.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this assignment, you should understand:
• How to use for-loops and nested for-loops to generate output for structured
text.
• How to use a simple if-statement..
• Use methods to organize your program.
• Use method parameters and method return values to direct the computation
performed in your solution.
Part (a): Problems from the Textbook
Complete Chapter 2 self-check problems 21 to 35; complete the Chapter 3 self-check
problems 1 to 11 and compare your answers with those available at:
http://www.buildingjavaprograms.com/self-check-solutions-4ed.html
Part (b): Calendars
In this assignment you will write a program named CalendarCanada.java producing a
month’s calendar as output. The program will:
• Ask the user for the number of days in the month.
• Ask the user for the date on which the first Sunday falls.
• Print out the resulting calendar.
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For this particular program you need not worry about legal calendars, i.e., assume
the user provides sensible values for number of days and starting Sunday.
Here is an example of the program’s execution (which should produce a calendar
looking like that for October 2016):
$ java CalendarCanada
Number of days in month? 31
Date of first Sunday? 2
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| | | | | | | 1 |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | | | | | |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Notice the program is named CalendarCanada; in other countries (e.g., Germany) the
days of the week on a calendar line begin with Monday (or, rather, “Montag”) than
Sunday.
Your program must have at least three methods (besides main()):
• public static void printSeparator(): This takes no parameters and returns no
value. It simply outputs the “horizontal” separator lines at the top and bottom
of the calendar (i.e., those with “+-----+”, etc.)
• public static String rightJustify(int value, int spaces): The method returns a
new string of width spaces where value appears at the end of the string. For
example, rightJustify(10, 5) will produce a string starting with three spaces
and ending with “10” (i.e., five characters in the string in total, or “VVV10”
where ‘V’ is denotes a space character.) Hint: The bottom of page 193 in the
textbook suggests one way of writing such a method.
• public static void outputCalendar(int numDays, int startingSunday): Contains
the Java statements needed to output the calendar corresponding to the
values passed in as parameters. The method will, of course, make use of the
other methods describe above. For example, the result appearing on the
console given a call to outputCalendar(31, 3) outputCalendar(31, 2) is what
appears in the sample execution up above. (Other examples are shown in the
provided file named examples.pdf.) Amongst other problems to solve, you will
need to carefully consider how best to print the “blank days” (i.e., those in the
starting and ending lines of each calendar) and to do so such that blank days
only appear if they are needed given the number of days in the month or the
starting Sunday or both.
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We expect your program to prompt the user as shown in the example with code
contained in the main() method. Please ensure your prompts (i.e., the “questions”
asked of the user) use the same text and order as in the example.
File to submit: CalendarCanada.java
Grading: What the marker will look for
• Documentation: Documentation in the implemented code must include the
author's identification and the purpose of the program. Each group of
instructions must be preceded with a comment describing their common
purpose. Each method must be preceded with a comment describing its
purpose as well as an indication of the input to and the output from the
method.
• White Space and Indentation in the code and adherence to Java naming
conventions.
• Your methods should accept input parameter values and return an output as
described above. Your program should use the methods wherever it is
appropriate. Other suitable methods can be created, of course, or no other
methods, if that is appropriate.
• Compiles and produces correct output: The code constitutes a valid Java
program (i.e. compiles and runs without error on the ECS 250 lab machines).
It must accept input and print output as described above.
• Prompts are provided as described in this document.
Grading scheme
• “A” grade: An exceptional submission demonstrating creativity and initiative
going above and beyond the assignment requirements. The program runs
without any problems using the specified methods. Any extra work appears in
the file named CalendarExtra.java, and identified within the file (i.e., Class
comment) is how you have extended the assignment to demonstrate
creativity and initiative.
• “B” grade: A submission completing the requirements of the assignment. The
program runs without any problems, uses the specified methods.
• “C” grade: A submission completing most of the requirements of the
assignment. The program runs with some problems but has the specified
methods, and yet might not have the expected output.
• “D” grade: A serious attempt at completing requirements for the assignment.
The program runs with major problems, or is missing specified methods.
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• “F” grade: Either no submission given, the submission does not compile, or
submission represents very little work.