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Doctor Data

Learning Exercise

Introduction

In C++, declarations are often separated from definitions. Declarations are grouped into so-called header files, with the respective implementations placed in source files. You can think of the header files as an API. The header file will tell you what a codebase has to offer without going into the details of how.

Header and Source

The most common file extension for header files is .h. Some projects use .hpp or skip the extension completely.

The definitions are located in a separate .cpp file. To reunite the parts, the source file starts by including the respective header file.

If you want to write a library called "quick_math" that offers a function "super_root" that you want to use often, the files would look like this:

// A file named quick_math.h
#pragma once
namespace quick_math {
    double super_root(double x, int n);
}
// A file named quick_math.cpp
#include "quick_math.h"
#include <cmath>
double quick_math::super_root(double x, int n) {
    while(n) { x = std::sqrt(x), --n;}
    return x;
}

If you need to include a header that is only required by the implementation, the respective #include line is only needed in the source file. Everything that is included in the header is also available in the .cpp file, like the string library in the example below. Attention: the ; is needed after the declaration in the header file, but not after the definition in the source file.

Note

Many C++ exercises on Exercism start with two almost empty files: header and source. You have to check the *_test.cpp file to see the names and namespaces of the expected functions in order to solve the exercise.

Classes and Headers

Classes can become very complex and their relation to the header / source partition might be confusing. One possible layout is to keep all the implementation details in the source file and all the declarations and member variables in the header:

// A file named robot_flower.h
#if !defined(ROBOT_FLOWER_H)
#define ROBOT_FLOWER_H
#include <string>
namespace robots {
    class Flower {
        private:
            bool needs_water{};
            int size{};
            std::string name{};
        public:
            Flower(std::string name, int size = 0);
            void give_water();
            std::string get_name();
            int get_size();
            void start_next_day();
    };
}
#endif
// A file named robot_flower.cpp
#include "robot_flower.h"
robots::Flower::Flower(std::string name, int size) {this->name = "Robotica " + name; this->size = size;}
void robots::Flower::start_next_day() {if (!needs_water) ++size; needs_water = true;}
std::string robots::Flower::get_name() {return name;}
int robots::Flower::get_size() {return size;}

When the header is used as an API overview, that is where a person would look for information like default values. The size parameter's default of the constructor is therefore handled in the header and not in the implementation. The definitions in the source file are prefixed with the namespace robots and the class type Flower.

Another layout option is a header only library, that does not have a .cpp file at all:

// A file named robot_flower.h
#pragma once
#include <string>
namespace robots {
    class Flower {
        private:
            bool needs_water{};
            int size{};
            std::string name{};
        public:
            Flower(std::string name, int size = 0) {this->name = "Robotica " + name; this->size = size;}
            void give_water() {needs_water = false;}
            std::string get_name() {return name;}
            int get_size() {return size;}
            void start_next_day() {if (!needs_water) ++size; needs_water = true;}
    };
}

Projects might use combinations of these layouts and there is a lot of discussion as to what might be the best fit for each use case.

Include Guards

You may have noticed the #pragma once line in the example header file above. This is called an include guard - and it ensures that the content of the file is included only once during the compilation to avoid errors. There is another, more complex variation of an include guard that starts with #ifndef and ends with #endif. It serves the same purpose and its usage is shown in the Flower class example above.

Instructions

You start your first day at an Australian company called "Doctor Data", which specializes in information recovery. You aced your job interview through your knowledge of C++ and von Neumann probes. As you have seen a lot of test files, your new boss wants you to recreate the respective source and header files from some test code the company has recently recovered.

In this exercise, you are going to recreate lost files. Currently the content of the files is unusable garbage data.

Note

The workflow of this concept exercise is very similar to the structure of Exercism's practice exercises. The exercise introduction text is only one part of the specification. The test file is your definitive guide to solving a given problem. Due to the way C++ compilation works, the test results might not show up in the web interface until you have implemented a minimal version of every class, function and enumeration that is required by the tests. If you receive compilation errors, they might disappear once you have addressed all tasks and tests.

You have four tasks, all related to recovering the lost code in the header and source files.

1. Try to extract some first clues

You look at two recovered lines from the test files:

heaven::Vessel bob{"Robert Johansson", 1};
heaven::Vessel will{"Riker", 2, star_map::System::BetaHydri};

Your sharp eye instantly recognized a namespace heaven. You also see that there must be a class called Vessel. The constructor can apparently be called with two or three arguments. The first argument seems to be of type string, the second one is a number. It is possible to initialize the Vessel class with a third argument. The third argument comes from a star_map namespace. It is an enumerator of type System. You even got one of the enumerations: BetaHydri.

Prepare the source and header files with your discovered information. You need two namespaces: heaven and star_map. The heaven namespace has a class Vessel, which can be called with two or three arguments. The System enum is to be placed in the star_map namespace and has an EpsilonEridani enumeration. Keep an eye out for other enumerations, so that you can constantly update the System enum.

2. Find more details

You uncover more lines from the test:

heaven::Vessel bob{"Robert Johansson", 1};
REQUIRE(bob.current_system == star_map::System::Sol);
REQUIRE(bob.generation == 1);
heaven::Vessel bob5 = bob.replicate("Mario");
REQUIRE(bob5.current_system == star_map::System::Sol);
REQUIRE(bob5.generation == 2);

The newly found test lines uncover another member function of the Vessel class: replicate. This function receives a string and returns another Vessel instance. You get an idea about the default value of the third argument of the constructor from the previous task. You also see two public member variables of the Vessel class and the specification of the replicate member function.

Add the replicate function and the public member variables current_system and generation to the header and source files.

3. Look into the inner workings

You find some more interesting lines in the recovered test files:

heaven::Vessel bob6{"Homer", 3, star_map::System::EpsilonEridani};
REQUIRE(bob6.busters == 0);
bob6.make_buster();
REQUIRE(bob6.busters == 1);
bool success = bob6.shoot_buster();
REQUIRE(success);
REQUIRE(bob6.busters == 0);
success = bob6.shoot_buster();
REQUIRE_FALSE(success);

Apparently, the Vessel class has a member variable busters, that can be changed with the two class member functions make_buster and shoot_buster. Until other information surfaces, you take a guess that the make_buster function returns void. As there is a test for the return value of shoot_buster, you assume that the function returns a bool.

Add the two functions and the member variable to the Vessel class. Keep looking for other System enumerators.

4. Complete the picture

During your scan of the test files you find only two uncovered sections of the code:

heaven::Vessel bob1{"Bob", 1, star_map::System::AlphaCentauri};
heaven::Vessel marv{"Marvin", 2, star_map::System::DeltaEridani};
heaven::Vessel milo{"Milo", 3, star_map::System::DeltaEridani};
heaven::Vessel howie{"Howard", 4, star_map::System::Omicron2Eridani};

REQUIRE("Bob" == heaven::get_older_bob(bob1, marv));
REQUIRE(heaven::in_the_same_system(marv, milo));
REQUIRE_FALSE(heaven::in_the_same_system(marv, howie));

You see two functions, that are not members of the Vessel class, as they are not called with an instance. get_older_bob compares two Vesselinstances and returns a string. in_the_same_system compares two Vesselinstances and returns a bool.

Implement the last missing functions from the recovered lines above.

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