ESc 014

Lab 4 -- The Money Changer
Thursday, April 25, 2002

Objectives

Introduction

Modern banks have sophisticated machines for taking a lot of loose change (coins) and determining the amount of money in dollars and cents. In this lab, you'll write code that will do the same task.

Lab summary

You will write two functions in a program designed to ask the user for a certain coin type (penny, nickel, dime, or quarter) and the number of coins the user has of that type. You will then convert that input into dollars and cents and display it.

Download the starter code

On blackduck in the "esc014pub" directory is a directory named "lab 4". Transfer this directory to the DesktopAnnex folder on your desktop. Go back to lab 1 if you need a refresher on the instructions.

Inside the "lab 4" folder is the starter code you should begin with named "yourNameHere.cpp". Change the filename to your own name (keep the .cpp extension). The starter code has the main function that you should use. You should NOT alter this code until directed to below. Study the code to understand what's going on. It calls two functions that you need to write.

The getInput function

This function will take two OUTPUT parameters: the number of coins the user wishes to convert and the coin denomination. The function will simply ask the user to input both of these values. The user will enter the coin denomination as an integer (1 for penny, 5 for nickel, 10 for dime, and 25 for quarter). These values will then be returned via the output parameters.

The computeDollars function

This function will take the number of coins and the coin denomination as input parameters. It will compute the amount of money as dollars and cents and return it.

Debug your code until it works. Be sure to test your program thoroughly and make sure you paste the results of your tests into your source code!

A second way to do it

It is possible to get your computeDollars function to work both when it has a return type and when it does not have a return type (i.e. void). You wrote it using one of these two ways above. How would you write it the other way? Write an alternative function for computeDollars called compute2 that will do the same task as computeDollars but would have a return type of void. Don't erase the computeDollars function. Just add the compute2 function to your program. Then, alter the main method to call this new function where appropriate. (Don't erase anything in main. Just comment out what you don't need). Debug your code until it works with your new compute2 function.

How to turn in this lab

Remember, you will be graded on the correctness of your implementation, neatness, presentation, style of your program code, thoroughness of your testing, and good use of the C++ language. It's important to comment your code where appropriate and to do little things like space things properly, use readable indentation, and also to make sure the overall design and logic of the program are coherent.

Turn in a hard copy of your source code along with the output appended at the bottom as a comment. Then turn in the source code electronically on BlackBoard.


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