University of Liverpool
Department of Computer Science
COMP282 – Advanced Object-Oriented C Languages
Coursework 1 – C++
Deadline: Tuesday 13th April at 17:00
Weighting: 50%
Make sure your student ID is clearly shown in a comment at the top of your source code. Compress your
Visual Studio project into a single zip file and submit it via SAM. Penalties for late work will be applied in
accordance with the Code of Practice on Assessment.
Project Overview
You will create a small interactive program to
input details about people, manipulate them, and
display them. The project consists of several
tasks, which you should tackle in order. Each task
builds on the previous one. Do as much as you
can and then package your project for
submission. Begin by downloading the Visual
Studio project template for this assessment.
Read through this entire document before you
start coding, so you’re aware of all tasks and the
overall structure of the program. Your solution
should demonstrate your knowledge of C++.
Important: Each task requires you to add extra
code. You shouldn’t need to remove any code.
Keep the code from previous tasks in your
program so we can see it and mark it.
Important: Each part requires you to change the
code in the main() function, potentially losing the
previous version. Therefore we have provided
functions called main_part1(), main_part2() and
main_part3(). Place your code for each part
inside the relevant function. You can uncomment
the relevant lines in the real main() function to
run and test each part.
Part 1 (Worth 15%)
Task 1 – Person Class Definition (5%)
Create a Person class that stores a name and age. The name should be stored as a string, and the age as an
integer. Declare and define a constructor that takes appropriate parameters and stores them in the object.
Also declare and define a default constructor that sets the name to an empty string and the age to zero.
Task 2 – Person I/O (5%)
Implement the << and >> operators so you can output and input a Person object with the following string
format.
Jasmine 18
In other words, the name of the person is output followed by the age. When the user types a similar string
as input, the first token (up to the space) should be stored as the name, and the second (after the space) as
the age. For this task you do not need to do any input validation or error handling. Assume the user will
always type the correct format.
Task 3 – Comparison Operators (5%)
Implement comparison operators (<, >, and ==) for the Person class. These should work numerically, based
on the ages of the people involved.
Add relevant test code to the main_part1() function. Make sure it’s sufficient to test all the implemented
aspects of the Person class from all tasks so far.
Part 2 (Worth 45%)
Task 4 – Adding & Listing People (Fixed Storage) (20%)
Implement this and subsequent tasks in the main_part2() function. Create a loop to present menu items
and input user choices. At this stage the menu will only have three options.
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
Q. Quit
You will need to use a suitable data structure to store Person objects. For the purposes of this task you can
assume we will never want to store more than 9 people. An example run of this program is shown below.
Example Output (Task 4)
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
Q. Quit
Enter Option: 1
Enter Details: Martin 42
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
Q. Quit
Enter Option: 1
Enter Details: Jenny 31
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
Q. Quit
Enter Option: 2
[1] Martin 42
[2] Jenny 31
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
Q. Quit
Enter Option: Q You should check that the storage is not full up (ie. already holds 9 people) before allowing a new person
to be added. Display an error message if the user tries to add too many people.
Task 5 – Finding the Oldest Person (10%)
Add another menu option so the user can find the oldest person in the data structure. An example run is
shown on the next page, assuming there is already some data in the system. You’ve already defined
comparison operators for the Person class that should be useful in this task. The algorithm itself is fairly
straightforward.
Task 6 – Removing People (15%)
Add another menu option so the user can remove people from the data structure. An example run is
shown below, assuming there is already some data in the system.
Example Output (Task 5)
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
3. Remove Person
4. Find Oldest
Q. Quit
Enter Option: 2
[1] Martin 42
[2] Jenny 31
[3] Alice 56
[4] Freddie 18
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
3. Remove Person
4. Find Oldest
Q. Quit
Enter Option: 4
Oldest: Alice 56
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
3. Remove Person
4. Find Oldest
Q. Quit
Enter Option: Q
Example Output (Task 6)
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
3. Remove Person
4. Find Oldest
Q. Quit
Enter Option: 2
[1] Martin 42
[2] Jenny 31
[3] Alice 56
[4] Freddie 18
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
3. Remove Person
4. Find Oldest
Q. Quit
Enter Option: 3
Enter Index: 2
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
3. Remove Person
4. Find Oldest
Q. Quit
Enter Option: 2
[1] Martin 42
[2] Alice 56
[3] Freddie 18
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
3. Remove Person
4. Find Oldest
Q. Quit
Enter Option: Q
You should make sure that you handle a situation where the user enters an index greater than the number
of people in the data structure.
You should shuffle data within the structure so there are no gaps when a user is removed. Remember you
can refer back to lecture examples and similar code used during lab sessions. Note also that the index
numbers in the output will reflect this shuffling of data, so they won’t always refer to the same person.
Part 3 (Worth 40%)
Task 7 – Refactored Program (Dynamic Data) (25%)
Implement this and subsequent tasks in the main_part3() function. You might like to copy the code from
the previous part as a starting point.
Refactor the program so it uses a dynamic data structure. In other words, there is no limit on the number
of people the program could store (assuming unlimited memory). The actual behaviour of the program
won’t change from the user’s perspective, but internally it will be very different.
You should use a dynamic data structure from the Standard Template Library, such as a vector. You should
also use a corresponding STL iterator. Note that the vector class has an erase() function to remove items.
Make full use of functions and algorithms from the STL where appropriate.
Task 8 – Sorting the Data (15%)
Add another menu option to sort the data in ascending order of age. Note that this will only sort the data,
not display it. If the user wants to see the sorted list, they can select that option afterwards.
1. Add Person
2. List Everyone
3. Remove Person
4. Find Oldest
5. Sort Data
Q. Quit
You should use the full range of functions and algorithms provided by the Standard Template Library, and
implement any necessary helper functions, as explained in the relevant lecture material.
How to Submit
Locate your Visual Studio project folder and compress it into a single .zip archive. If you use any other
format we won’t be able to extract and mark your work. Rename your archive so it has the module code
and your student ID in the filename (eg. comp282_cw1_201212345.zip).
If you want to draw our attention to anything, make a comment in the code itself. We will not read or mark
any other documents.
Submit your archive via SAM (https://sam.csc.liv.ac.uk/COMP/CW_Submissions.pl). You can submit
multiple attempts. If you submit more than one, we will only look at and mark the most recent.
Marking Descriptors
We draw your attention to the standard Department Grade Descriptors, which are listed in the Student
Handbook.