Description
You must write a program which reads, processes and reports on the contents of a text
file.
Your program should:
1. Read the name of the text file from the console.
2. Read in a text file, not all at once. (This can be line by line, word by word or
character by character.)
3. The file content must be converted to a sequence of words, discarding
punctuation and folding all letters into lower case.
4. Store the unique words and maintain a count of each different word.
5. The words should be ordered by decreasing count and, if there are multiple
words with the same count, alphabetically. (This ordering may be achieved as
the words are read in, partially as the words are read or at the end of all input
processing.)
6. Output the first ten words in the sorted list, along with their counts.
7. Output the last ten words in the list, along with their counts.
You must choose appropriate data structures and algorithms to accomplish this task.
Note: in the context of this assignment, appropriate choices will be efficient and
will not use excessive instructions or data.
Note: where a punctuation mark appears between two letters, the sequence is to be
treated as a single word. Thus, it’s will become its, you’ll will become youll
and loop-hole will become loophole.
Note: you can assume that the input file contains no more than 50,000 different
words.
Note: a small sample input file “sample.txt” is provided for you to test your program.
A larger text file will be used for final assessment.
Note: you may use any data structures or algorithms that have been presented in class
up to the end of week 4. If you use other data structures or algorithms
appropriate references must be provided.
Programs must compile and run under gcc (C programs), g++ (C++ programs) java or
python. Programs which do not compile and run will receive no marks.
Programs should be appropriately documented with comments.
All coding must be your own work. Standard libraries of data structures and
algorithms such as STL may not be used, nor may code be sourced from textbooks,
the internet, etc.
Marking Guide:
Programs submitted must work! A program which fails, to compile or run will receive
a mark of zero.
A program which produces the correct output, no matter how inefficient the code, will
receive a minimum of 50% of the program component of the mark.
Additional marks beyond this will be awarded for the appropriateness, i.e. efficiency
for this problem, of the algorithms and data structures you use.
Programs which lack clarity, both in code and comments, will lose marks.
The total mark will be determined on the basis of both your code and the
accompanying design pdf document.
Submission:
Assignments should be typed into a single text file called ass1.ext where ext is the
appropriate file extension for the chosen language. A pdf file describing your solution
should also be produced. This file should contain at least:
1. A high‐level description of the overall solution strategy:
2. A list of all of the data structures used, where they are used and the reasons for
their choice.
3. A list of any standard algorithms used, where they are used and why they are used.
Both files should be submitted via the submit program.
submit -u user -c csci203 -a 1 ass1.ext ass1.pdf
where your unix userid should appear instead of user.
