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Programming Fundamentals for Software and Computer Lab 7
ENSF 337: Programming Fundamentals for Software and Computer
Lab 7
Objective:
Here is the summary of the some of the topics that are covered in this lab:
• C++ objects on the computer memory
• Designing a C++ class
• Understanding the details of copying objects in C++
Marking Scheme:
Exercise A: 4 marks
Exercise B: not marked
Exercise C: 22 marks
Exercise D: 8 marks
Exercise E: 12 marks
Total: 42 marks
Important Notes:
• Exercise B is not marked, but it is an important exercise that helps you to understand how some of the
elements of object-oriented programs, including: constructor, default constructor, and destructor work, and
when and how they will be called.
• If you are compiling and running your program from command line, make sure to use C++ compilation
command g++ instead of gcc.
Due Dates:
Because of upcoming midterm exam on Thursday Nov 3rd and term break (Nov 7 to Nov 11), the due
date is longer than usual, and both sections will have the same due date on:
Friday Nov 18, 9:00 AM
Late Due Date:
20% marks will be deducted from the assignments handed in up to 24 hours after each due date. That means if
your mark is X out of Y, you will only gain 0.8 times X. There will be no credit for assignments turned in later
than 24 hours after the due dates; they will be returned unmarked.
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Exercise A:
The objective of this exercise is to help you in understanding how C++ objects are shown on a memory
diagram, and how a member function of a class uses the ‘this’ pointer to access an object associated with a
particular function call. For further details please refer to your lecture notes and slides.
What to Do:
Download files cplx.cpp, cplx.h, and lab7ExA.cpp from the D2L and draw AR diagrams for: point
one and point two.
For this exercise you just need to draw the diagrams. However, if you want to compile and run it from
command line, you should have all of the given files in the same directory and from that directory you should
use the following command to compile and create an executable:
g++ -Wall cplx.cpp lab7ExA.cpp
Please notice that you shouldn’t have the header file name(s) in this command.
Exercise B: Construction and Destruction of Objects
Although this exercise is not marked, it a very important exercise. You are strongly recommended not
to skip this exercise and try to understand its details.
What to Do:
Compile the files lab7ExB.cpp, and lab7String.cpp, run the program and fill out the following table
to indicate which object or which pointer (a, p, d, b, c, or g) is associated with the call to a constructor or
destructor. As an example, the answer for the first row is given – which indicates that the first call to the
constructor (abbreviated as ctor) is associated with the Lab7String object, a.
Notes:
• Also, many programmer use dtor as an abbreviation for destructor.
• When compiling this program, compiler may give you warning for unused variables. Although warnings
are always important to be considered and to be fixed, but in this exercise, we ignored those warnings to
keep the program short and simple.
Program output in order that they appear on the screen Call is associated with object(s):
ctor called... a
default ctor called...
default ctor called...
ctor called...
ctor called...
ctor called...
The first four calls to dtor
The last two calls to dtor
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Exercise C: Designing a C++ Class:
Read This First – What is a Helper Function?
One of the important elements of good software design is the concept of code-reuse. The idea is that if any part
of the code is repeatedly being used, we should wrap it into a function, and then reuse it by calling the function
as many times as needed. In the past labs in this course and the previous programming course, we have seen
how we can develop global function to reuse them as needed. A similar approach can be applied within a C++
class by implementing helper-functions. These are the functions that are declared as private member
functions and are only available to the member functions of the class -- Not available to the global
functions such as main or member functions of the other classes.
If you pay close attention to the given instruction in the following “What to Do” section, you will find that
there are some class member functions that need to implement a similar algorithm. They all need to change the
value of data members of the class in a more or less similar fashion. Then, it can be useful if you write one or
more private helper-function, that can be called by any of the other member functions of the class, as needed.
Read This Second – Complete Design and Implementation Class - Clock
In this exercise you are going to design and implement a C++ class called, Clock that represents a 24-hour
clock. This class should have three private integer data members called: hour, minute, and second.
The minimum value of these data members is zero and their maximum values should be based on the
following rules:
• The values of minute, and second in the objects of class Clock cannot be less than 0 or more than
59.
• The value of hour in the objects of class Clock cannot be less than 0 or more than 23.
• As an example any of the following values of hour, minute, and second is acceptable for an object of class
Clock (format is hours:minutes:seconds) : 00:00:59, 00:59:59, 23:59:59,
00:00:00. And, all of the following examples are unacceptable:
▪ 24:00:00 (hour cannot exceed 23)
▪ 00:90:00 (minute of second cannot exceed 59)
▪ 23:-1:05 (none of the data members of class Clock can be negative)
Class Clock should have three constructors:
A default constructor, that sets the values of the data-members hour, minute, and second to zeros.
A second constructor, that receives an integer argument in seconds, and initializes the Clock data members
with the number of hour, minute, and second in this argument. For example, if the argument value is
4205, the values of data members hour, minute and second should be: 1, 10, and 5 respectively. If
the given argument value is negative the constructor should simply initialize the data members all to zeros.
The third constructor receives three integer arguments and initializes the data members hour, minute,
and second with the values of these arguments. If any of the following conditions are true this constructor
should simply initialize the data members of the Clock object all to zeros:
• If the given values for second or minute are greater than 59 or less than zero.
• If the given value for hour is greater than 23 or less than zero.
Class Clock should also provide a group of access member functions (getters, and setters) that allow the
users of the class to retrieve values of each data member, or to modify the entire value of time. As a
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convention, lets have the name of the getter functions started with the word get, and the setter functions
started with word set, both followed by an underscore, and then followed by the name of data member. For
example, the getter for the data member hour should be called get_hour, and he setter for the data member
hour should be called set_hour. Remember that getter functions must be declared as a const member
function to make them read-only functions.
All setter functions must check the argument of the function not to exceed the minimum and maximum limits
of the data member. If the value of the argument is below or above the limit the functions are supposed to do
nothing.
In addition to the above-mentioned constructors and access functions, class Clock should also have a group
of functions for additional functionalities (lets call them implementer functions) as follows:
1. A member function called increment that increments the value of the clock’s time by one.
Example: If the current value of time is 23:59:59, this function will change it to: 00:00:00 (which is
midnight sharp). Or, if the value of the time is 00:00:00 a call to this function increments it by one and
makes it: 00:00:01 (one second past midnight – the next day) .
2. A member function called decrement that decrements the value of the clock’s time by one.
Example: If the current value of time is 00:00:00, this function will change it to: 23:59:59. Or, if the
value of current time is 00:00:01, this function will change it to: 00:00:00.
3. A member function called add_seconds that REQUIRES to receive a positive integer argument in
seconds and adds the value of given seconds to the value of the current time.
For example, if the clock’s time is 23:00:00, and the given argument is 3601 seconds, the time should
change to: 00:00:01.
4. Two helper functions. These functions should be called to help the implementation of the other member
functions, as needed. Most of the above-mentioned constructors and implementer function should be able
to use these functions:
• A private function called hms_to_sec: that returns the total value of data members in a Clock
object, in seconds. For example if the time value of a Clock object is 01:10:10, returns 4210
seconds.
• A private function called sec_to_hms, which works in an opposite way. It receives an argument
(say, n), in seconds, and sets the values for the Clock data members, second, minute, and
hour, based on this argument. For example, if n is 4210 seconds, the data members values should
be: 1, 10 and 10, respectively for hour, minute, and second.
What to Do:
If you haven’t already read the “Read This First” and “Read This Second”, in the above sections, read them
first. The recommended concept of helper function can help you to reduce the size of repeated code in your
program.
Then, download file lab7ExC.cpp from D2L. This file contains the code to be used for testing your class
Clock.
Now, take the following steps to write the definition and implementation of your class Clock as instructed in
the above “Read This Second” section.
1. Create a header file called lab7Clock.h and write the definition of your class Clock in this file.
Make sure to use the appropriate preprocessor directives (#ifndef, #define, and #endif), to
prevent the compiler from duplication of the content of this header file during the compilation process.
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2. Create another file called lab7Clock.cpp and write the implementation of the member functions of
class Clock in this file (remember to include “lab7Clock.h”).
3. Compile files lab7ExC.cpp (that contain the given main functions) and lab7Clock.cpp to create
your executable file.
4. If your program shows any compilation or runtime errors fix them until your program produces the
expected output as mentioned in the given main function.
5. Now you are done!
What to Submit:
Submit your source code, lab7Clock.h, and lab7Clock.cpp, and the program’s output as part of your
lab report in pdf on the D2L Dropbox.
Exercise D: The DynString class
Part one - What to do:
Download the files DynString.cpp, DynString.h, part1.cpp from D2L.
Read the file part1.cpp. Try to visualize what the program will do, including calls to constructors and the destructor.
Build an executable using part1.cpp and DynString.cpp and run it to see what it does.
Make a memory diagram for points-one, labeled in the function truncate.
Also answer the following questions:
• At point two in the main function, how many times the constructor and how many times the destructor of the
class DynString is called?
• At the end of the main (just before main function terminates), how many times the constructor and how many
times the destructor of the class DynString is called?
What to Submit:
Submit your diagram and the answer to the question s.
Part two -What to do:
Before starting this part, make sure to complete part one. It will certainly help you to understand and solve this part of the
exercise.
The definitions of the append member functions is missing from the file DynString.cpp. This function is
supposed to change the length of the string, so the function requires the following approach:
• Allocate a new array of the right length.
• Copy whatever characters need to be copied into the new array.
• Deallocate the old array.
• Adjust the value of the lengthM variable.
Your task is to write the function’s implementation. To check that it works download part2.cpp, change the
#if 0 to #if 1 in this file, compile and run your program, and make sure the program output is as it is
expected.
Pay attention to the following points:
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• The memory management strategy for DynString says that the dynamic array should be exactly the right
length to hold its contents. Make sure that your definitions of append is consistent with this strategy.
• The program in part2.cpp is not a very thorough test harness. It's not hard to get the correct output even
if some of your code is defective. Read your function definition carefully to make sure that it properly
handles dynamically allocated memory.
What to Submit:
Submit the copy of your append function, and the program output.
Exercise E: A Simple Class Vector and Copying Object
The objective of this exercise is to practice more code-level design concepts such as dynamic allocation and
de-allocation of memory for class data members and to understand the concepts of copying objects.
What to Do:
Download files simpleVector.h, simpleVector.cpp, and lab7ExE.cpp from D2L. Open the
given files and read their contents carefully to understand the details of implementation of some of the given
members. If you compile and run this program, you will notice that some of the expected test results are
incorrect. This is because the copy constructor, the assignment operator (which is also known
as copy assignment operator), and one of the member functions called push_back is missing.
In this exercise your job is to complete the definition of these functions. In the given main function, part of the
code that tests the copy assignment operator or copy constructor is commented out by being confined between
#if 0 … #endif. When ready to test your copy assignment operator and copy constructor, please change
the #if 0 to #if 1. You are also recommended to test one function at time; once one function works with
no errors move to the next one. For this purpose you can move the location of the conditional compilation
directives (#if 0) to an appropriate lower parts of the main function, as you progress. To better understand
how this class is supposed to work, first read carefully the content of the given files and the comments on
memory policy. Also, see the following example for a main function that creates an object of class
SimpleVector, and the AR diagrams at points one, two, and three. The diagrams show how the object v is
initially created, and then what will happen to the object if the function push_back works as it is expected.
int main(void)
{
int a [] = { 9, 6, 5 };
SimpleVector v(a, 3);
// point 1
v.push_back(32);
// point 2
v.push_back(55);
// point 3
return 0;
}
Point 1 Point 2 Point 3
What to Submit:
Submit your simpleVector.cpp and the output of the program, as part of your lab report in pdf format.
no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 3
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
3 5
6
9
no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 4
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
6 5
6
9
??
??
32 no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 5
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
6 5
6
9
??
55
32
no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 3
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
3 5
6
9
no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 4
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
6 5
6
9
??
??
32 no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 5
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
6 5
6
9
??
55
32
no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 3
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
3 5
6
9
no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 4
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
6 5
6
9
??
??
32 no args
Heap
Stack
storageM
sizeM 5
V
capacityM
5
6
9
AR main
a[0]
a[2]
6 5
6
9
??
55
32
