Lab 2 Working with File Input and Output

Lab 2

Working with File Input and Output
(3 pts) Design
In this lab, you will read and write to a file, as well as sorting the information. Copy and paste the
following into a file named "inputs.txt":
7
199922007 C.J. Cregg Political_Science
200822013 Olivia Dunham Criminal_Justice
199822007 Josh Lyman Law
199922006 Toby Ziegler Communications
200922015 Leslie Knope Public_and_Environmental_Affairs
199922004 Sam Seaborn Law
200722013 Walter Bishop General_Sciences
The input file provides details for a student database in the following format:
Number_of_students
ID_Number Student_First_Name Student_Last_Name Major
 …<repeats n number of times>…
ID_Number Student_First_Name Student_Last_Name Major
Your program will read specific information from the file and continue reading the contents of the body
from the file until the EOF (end of file) character. You will write the following information to an output file:
Sort students by ID number
Sort students by last name
Each section of information should be labeled in the output file in all capital letters. A struct should be
used to store and manipulate the file information between reading and writing the file. You must include
the follow three functions with the exact prototypes:
student* create_student_db(int);
void get_student_db_info(student *, int, fstream &);
void delete_student_db_info(student *);
Your main function needs to check to make sure the file you open exists before moving forward. If the
file doesn’t exist, then you need to provide an error message and prompt the user to enter a file name
that does exist.
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Write a design for the main function in the driver file, driver.cpp.
Write a design for the create_student_db(), get_student_db_info(), and delete_student_db_info() as
well as the functions needed to satisfy the above bulleted output functions in the implementation file,
student_db.cpp
fstream documentation: http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/fstream/fstream/
(http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/fstream/fstream/)
(7 pts) Implementation
Now, implement the driver.cpp, student_db.cpp, and student_db.h files. Create a Makefile to manage the
compilation of all these files. You can adapt the Makefile that was posted on the Lectures page in
Canvas.
A Note on Sorting
There are many different algorithms that can be used to sort data. For the purposes of this lab, one of
the simplest algorithms to implement is a version of the bubble sort algorithm. Bubble sort works by
repeatedly comparing two elements in a collection of data, and swapping them. It continues through all
of the data until no more swaps are needed, indicating that the data is sorted.
Bubble Sort reference: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/bubble-sort/
(https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/bubble-sort/)
(3 pts) Makefiles
What if we had 1,000 implementation (.cpp) files? Manually compiling all of them together would take
forever and have a high chance for error. Luckily, UNIX/Linux has a built in script that makes compiling
multiple files together easy called a Makefile. Just type
vim Makefile
on the command line to create it. Now modify the file following the pattern shown below:
<target>:
 <compiler> <file1.cpp> <file2.cpp> -o <target>
Note that the leading whitespace MUST be a tab (you can't just use spaces). An example of what this
could look like for this lab would be:
student_db:
 g++ student_db.cpp driver.cpp -o student_db
Save and exit the file. You can type "make" in the terminal to run it.
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Important note: If you copy and paste from the lab, your editor may convert the tab character to 4
space characters. You have to ensure your editor setting inputs a tab character! Also be sure that the
"dash" character (which looks like this: - ) is copied correctly.
One of the other benefits of makefiles is that you can add variables to it and make compiling happen in
different stages by stopping g++ after compiling and before running it through the linker. This creates
object files (.o files), which you can link together
CC = g++
exe_file = student_db
$(exe_file): student_db.o driver.o
 $(CC) student_db.o driver.o -o $(exe_file)
student_db.o: student_db.cpp
 $(CC) -c student_db.cpp
driver.o: driver.cpp
 $(CC) -c driver.cpp
Try to make your program again. Notice all the stages. In addition, we usually add a target for cleaning
up our directory:
clean:
 rm –f *.out *.o $(exe_file)
Now we can run the specific target by typing "make <target>.
make clean
Makefiles are a useful way to automate and control the program building process as your projects grow
in size.
(2 pts) TAR Files
When you begin to have projects with multiple files, it becomes useful to have a way to group them
together for uploading, emailing, or archiving. TAR files (also known as tarballs) are classic way to do
this on Linux machines, and are what you will use for programming assignment submissions.
To create a tar file, use the tar command. There are multiple options that can be added, with examples
and explanations at the reference material below. The ones included in the example below are -c, -v,
and -f.
tar -cvf tarfile_name.tar file1 file2 ... filen
The -c option is used to create the tar file. The -f option is used to specify which tar file to use, followed
by the filename (ending in .tar) that you specify. The -v option stands for "verbose", and prints the files
being added to the tar file to the terminal as the tar command executes.
After the command, options, and chosen .tar filename, you must include all of the files that you want to
be added, separated by a space.
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To extract the files from a tarball, you can use the following command, where the -x option stands for
"extract":
tar -xvf tarfile_name.tar
Prove to the TA that you can make a tarball with multiple files, and then extract the files from it. Make
sure that when creating the tarball you specify the .tar filename, and to extract the files into a different
directory than the original.
TAR Command Examples reference: https://www.rootusers.com/23-tar-command-examples-forlinux/ (https://www.rootusers.com/23-tar-command-examples-for-linux/)
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