Description
A group of patients are sitting in the local hospital’s Emergency waiting room, when the
attending ER physician arrives for her shift. The triage nurse has already assessed patients
by their main complaint and provides an electronic device whereby the physician can touch
the screen and the next patient chart is provided. The ordering of the charts is determined
by the patient’s priority and then time of check-in. You have been tasked with the part of
the software that stores the patient information and prioritizes the list for the ER physician.
The project leader has elected to use a priority queue based on an array-based heap to store
the ER Patient objects.
Quick Start
(1) Create a fresh directory to contain this assignment: CSC115/assn6 is a recommended
name. Download this pdf file and the .java files to this directory.
(2) Download and extract the javafiles.zip and docs.zip in the same directory. A
docs directory will be created to store the specifications for the public classes. All the
document links in this document are accessible if they are stored in the docs directory
local to this pdf file. A light blue text segment indicates a link.
(3) The following files are complete:
• ER Patient.java
• NoSuchCategoryException.html
(4) The following files are partially done and need to be completed:
• Heap.java
• PriorityQueue.java
Descriptions of the Helper Classes
Chapter 12 of the textbook provides most of the background on the array-based heap and
the priority queue ADT. Note that within the PriorityQueue, the Heap is completely
hidden from the user, invoking the information-hiding aspects of O-O programming.
Detailed steps to completing the Heap class:
(1) The shell is provided for this class. Fill in the comments above each of the public
methods and write the code that makes these methods work.
(2) Add additional data fields as necessary. Add additional private methods that help
maintain both the ordering of the Heap array during inserts and removals. A private
print-out of the array is always recommended, as are separate methods for bubbling
an item upwards or downwards.
(3) You must not change the provided method headers or the given data fields. There
are two reasons for this requirement:
(a) You are a programmer on a team; others are expecting their code to plug into
your code.
(b) Your are a student in CSC115, doing an exercise that enhances your skills as a
programmer. To obtain adequate feedback, the marker(s) are counting on easy
access to your implementation.
(4) Why are we using a java.util.Vector instead of basic array? Arrays in Java
were originally copied from the C programming language. They behave as Objects
but do not follow the standard rules for proper O-O programming. Once Java introduced generics, the array was left behind. There is no way to create a basic
array that handles generic objects. The Vector class has all the functionality of a
resizable array AND it can handle generic objects.
(5) You must test every method internally. The more rigorously you test, the more
robust your code. Do not move to the next step until you are confident that the
Heap works as expected.
• Note that the ER Patient internal class uses Thread.sleep() to spread a
single second between admit times. You may use this technique or choose the
constructor to create your own admit times. For the sake of the marker’s sanit,
DO NOT use Thread.sleep in any method other than main.
Detailed steps to completing the PriorityQueue class:
(1) The shell is provided for this class. Fill in the comments above each of the public
methods and write the code that makes these methods work.
(2) Let the hidden Heap data structure do all the work in each of the PriorityQueue
methods.
(3) Test the PriorityQueue. If the Heap has been thoroughly tested, it is sufficient to
insert a few patients and then dequeue and print until the queue is empty. A sorted
print-out indicates success.
A note about the Heap vs. the PriroityQueue:
A PriorityQueue can use a linked data structure, an un-ordered array, an ordered array,
or a tree as its underlying data structure. We use the Heap in this exercise, because the
Heap data structure is so beautifully similar to the PriorityQueue and takes O(log n)
for both insert and remove operations. However, the Heap is a complete binary tree data
structure and is not necessarily bound by the PriorityQueue’s interface definitions. For
instance, it is allowed to have an iterator and it is allowed to have a size method. There is
also nothing stopping a Heap from deleting an item in the middle of its structure, although
there are better data structures for that kind of operation.
The PriorityQueue ADT is much more limiting. For that reason, you want to make
sure that the user does not ever have access to the Heap itself. It is desirable to have the
PriorityQueue hide any extra functionality of the Heap.
Submission
Submit the following completed files to the Assignment folder on conneX.
• Heap.java
• PriorityQueue.java
Please make sure you have submitted the required file(s) and conneX has sent you a confirmation email. Do not send [.class] (the byte code) files. Also, make sure you submit
your assignment, not just save a draft. Draft copies are not made available to the instructors, so they are not collected with the other submissions. We can find your draft submission,, but only if we know that it’s there.
A note about academic integrity
It is OK to talk about your assignment with your classmates, and you are encouraged to
design solutions together, but each student must implement their own solution.
Grading
Marks are allocated for the following:
• Proper programming style is demnstrated, as per the coding conventions on CSC115
conneX Resources. All instruction comments must be removed from the code.
• Source code that follows the specifications and instructions.
• Heap uses a Vector as its main data field.
• Good data abstraction: well-defined Heap and PriorityQueue.
• Good modularity: well-defined helper methods.
• Internal testing: using the main method as a test harness.
• You will receive no marks for any Java files that do not compile.
