Re: Help with Assignment
Alvin wrote:
Can someone tell me how to start the code for this assigment for class?
Programming Assignment 4 (Follows Module 8)
Rational fractions are of the form a / b, where a and b are integers and b
!= 0. In this exercise, by "fractions" we mean rational fractions. Suppose a
/ b and c / d are fractions. Arithmetic operations on fractions are defined
by the following rules:
a/b + c/d = (ad + bc) / bd
a/b - c/d = (ad - bc) / bd
a/b * c/d = ac / bd
(a/b) / (c/d) = ad / bc Hint: Check carefully to avoid divide by zero!
Design the class Fraction that can be used to manipulate fractions in a
program. Among others, the class Fraction must include methods to add,
subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. When you add, subtract, multiply,
or divide fractions, your answer need not be in the lowest terms.
Write a Java console program using the class Fraction that performs
operations on fractions. Override the method toString so that the fraction
can be output using the output statement.
For starters, the numerators and denominators that crop up
when working with such Fractions tend to grow very large very
easily (especially if you don't reduce to lowest terms!), so it
is risky to try to represent them with any of Java's primitive
types and their limited ranges. java.lang.BigInteger springs
to mind almost immediately: unlimited range (unless the JVM runs
out of memory), plus built-in methods for addition, multiplication,
and so on. All you've got to do is keep track of two of them:
a numerator and a denominator. From there on, it's just a matter
of imitating the procedures you learned in grade school.
Here's a kick-start:
package whatever.you.like;
import java.lang.BigInteger;
class Fraction {
private final BigInteger num;
private final BigInteger den;
Fraction(BigInteger num, BigInteger den) {
// WARNING: not "industrial-strength!"
this.num = num;
this.den = den;
}
Fraction add(Fraction that) {
...
}
Fraction sub(Fraction that) {
...
}
Fraction mul(Fraction that) {
...
}
Fraction div(Fraction that) {
...
}
public String toString() {
...
}
}
That's just the barest sketch, of course. You're supposed
to learn something by filling in the blanks.
As it happens, I have made a pretty serious attempt at a
Fraction class that's slightly more ambitious than your
assignment: Its repertoire includes +1/0, -1/0, and 0/0 to
represent infinities and NaNs, it implements Comparable, it
extends Number (quite a lot of work, actually), and it has no
few convenience methods in addition to the basics. I know of
two outright bugs in my implementation (the floatValue() and
doubleValue() methods round in the wrong bit position if the
result is a denormal number), and one dubious design decision
(Fraction.NEGATIVE_INFINITY.invert() is Fraction.ZERO, but
Fraction.ZERO.invert() is Fraction.POSITIVE_INFINITY). It was
a good deal of fun to put this together; I hope you will have
as much fun with your assignment!
See also Knuth "The Art of Computer Programming, Volume II:
Seminumerical Algorithms." He'll have no truck with the "You
don't need lowest terms" nonsense, though: 1/2 + 1/2 is 1/1
to him, not 2/2 or 4/4!
--
Eric Sosman
esosman@acm-dot-org.invalid