Description
Question 1 [16 marks]
In this question you are going to extend the program you made in Assignment 2 by providing more
functionalities. You are again going to write your own main function so the program runs.
Create a program that reads all the superhero information from a file and provide an interface for the
user to query superhero entries. Your program must support the following functionalities as options:
• Option 1: to load a data file – ask the user to input the name of the file containing superhero
information and load the entries from that file (report # of entries). Note that the file can be nonexistent (if so the program should print the error and keep running), but if it exists you can assume
the format inside that file is valid and consistent, with each line having at most 300 characters. It
is possible for the user to load a different file by choosing this option again, which will replace the
previously loaded entries. You can assume the filename has at most 50 characters and no space.
• Option 2: to list entries sorted by height – list the superheroes from shortest to tallest. Within
entries with the same height (if exist), they should be ordered by name (as determined by strcmp).
• Option 3: to list entries sorted by name – list the superheroes sorted by name (as determined by
strcmp). Within entries with the same name (if exist), they should be ordered by height.
• Option 4: to lookup a superhero – ask the user for a superpower for at most 50 characters (space
included), then report all entries with superpower having the input as a substring. There can be
more than one entry. The lookup is case-sensitive (i.e., “fly” and “Fly” are not the same).
o If one or more entries are found, print all the information. Any order is acceptable.
o If no entry is found, print “No such superhero on record.”
You can assume the user will always enter at most 50 characters.
• Option 5: to terminate the program – thank the user and end the program.
Your program must meet these requirements:
• Include the provided header file (.h file) and use the functions defined in the corresponding
implementation file (.c file) in your driver file (where main is), do not redefine those functions.
• Use a dynamic array of Superhero struct pointers to store the superhero information. This is the
recommended approach from A2 (instead of a static array with a fixed size) as we might change
the number of entries in the provided file, and dynamic arrays can accommodate that variation.
• There must be no memory leaks (e.g., your program requests some memory but does not release
them all before it terminates). In CSIL you can use the Valgrind tool as described to check for that.
• Start with a fancy banner. There is no specific requirement besides it must include your name, 9-
digit SFU ID, and your SFU email address. Let your creativity shine, just nothing offensive.
• If a functionality (e.g., list, lookup) is requested by the user but no file has been loaded, the
program should print an error message telling the user that no file have been loaded and prompt
the user to do so (e.g., “No superheroes file loaded. Load one first.”).
• The sorting for Options 2&3 can be done using any sorting algorithms covered in class, including
the built-in qsort, which requires to you to write your own compare functions. See
a3_superherolib.h for details.
And here are some hints for you to write your code:
• The program interface is essentially a do-while loop where in each iteration it asks for an option
and determines what to do, with a repeating conditional of the terminating option has not been
inputted. It is a common approach for menu-based interfaces.
• Since each item in the dynamic array for the superhero entries are pointers, be careful with how
you are casting the pointer variables in the compare functions for qsort (they are pointers to the
items) – suppose the dynamic array has the type A**, then the variables should be cast to A**.
• The scanf() function works slightly differently between different formats. One difference is how
it handles leading and trailing newlines (look up “dangling newline character” if you are curious).
One option to get around this is put a space in front of the format string (e.g., “ %d”, “ %s”). You
are encouraged to explore different ways to get around this issue.
*The entries are randomly generated using ChatGPT with a specific format and then lightly modified.
Hence, the content might not make sense and have very similar wording patterns – no need to worry.
Include the function definitions corresponding to a3_superherolib.h (and your helper functions, if any) in
a source file named as a3_superherolib.c. Remember the .h file only contains the function headers.
Include your main function definition (and of your helper functions, if any) in another source file named
as a3_superheroLookupSystem.c. We call this the driver file because this is where the program starts.
To determine where to place a helper function, think about its purpose. If it provides functionality with
the Superhero structs (e.g., create/clear Superheroes, compare Superheroes), it is a library function; if it
provides functionality of the program (e.g., print a fancy banner), it is a program function. Incorrectly
placing these functions will lead to mark deductions in the Coding Style category.
Here are some sample input and output (you can assume user input is always valid, but could be incorrect):
Figure 1. Inputting an incorrect option (9), opening a non-existent file (incorrect input) then an existing file (with 100 entries).
Figure 2. Listing superheroes sorted by height (note those with the same height are sorted by name).
Figure 3. Looking up for “strength” which has no result (but with “Strength” there will be one – Iron Guardian).
Figure 4. Looking up for “Sound” (4 results, order doesn’t matter) – yes there are actually name duplicates in the file!
Coding Style [4 marks]
Your program should be properly indented, have clear and meaningful variable names (e.g., no singleletter variable names except loop iterators) and enough white space and comments to make it easy to
read. Named constants should be used where appropriate. Each line of code should not exceed 80
characters. White space should be used in a consistent manner. Remember to include your information.
Keep your code concise and efficient. If your code is unnecessarily long or inefficient (e.g., hard-code for
all possible cases, extraneous function calls), we might deduct marks. To help you to get into the habit of
good coding style, we will read your code and marks will be deducted if your code is not styled properly.
Before You Submit
Before submitting your assignment, make sure you have test-run your code in our CSIL machines using
the steps covered in class: open your assignment folder in VS Code, use the gcc command with options
in the terminal to compile your code, and run the executable. We will use these steps when marking
your submission and will deduct marks if your code does not compile/run – to maintain fairness we do
not accept reasons like “but it worked on my computer” or “but it ran just fine in my IDE”.
The Makefile provided in this assignment is used by a command in the CSIL machines called “make” to
quickly compile your code. It is especially useful if you have multiple source files. To use it, type the
following command in the prompt (make sure you are in the directory with all the files of Assignment 3):
$ make test1
The example above illustrates how Question 1 is compiled into an executable called “test1” when using
the Makefile. Replace the “test1” with “test2”, “test3”, …etc. for other questions. You can then run the
executable by typing ./test1 to test your code for Question 1. If you make changes to your code, use the
make command again. You can also use make all if you want to compile all your code at once.
The header file a3_superherolib.h is there to make the compilation work. Take a look at it for information
about how each function should work. You might have to modify it and you will have to submit it this time.
Submission
Submit only the 3 source files (a3_superherolib.h, a3_superherolib.c, a3_superheroLookupSystem.c) to
CourSys. Refer to the corresponding Canvas assignment entry for details.
Assignment late penalty: 10% per calendar day (each 0 to 24 hour period past due), max 2 days late.
