Need help getting started on a program

Hello all,

Im new to Java programming and new to the forum.

I have a practice program in preparation for an exam and I need some help. My main problem when Im programming is usually the logic behind what needs to be done and how to start it.

Here is the task:

Basically I have a txt file with the following information:
(state, name of candidate1, pledged delegates for candidate1, candidate 2, pledged delegates for candidate 2).

The file is 44 rows and 5 columns. I have to prepare a report with the following information:

1.Read and display the contents of the file.
I have completed this part

2.Compute and display the total delegates per candidate.


3. Determine and list the states won by each candidate based on the delegates.

4.Determine and display any states where there were ties.

5.Compute the number of delegates each candidate needs to become the democraetic nominee for president

6. arrange each candidate's delegates in order from highest to lowest delegate count and display the state and number of delegates. Be sure to label the information by candidate.

7.Determine and display the candidate with the most delegates.


If i could just get a simple jumpstart on how to tackle each of these i would greatly appreciate it

There are a couple approaches I will suggest. The one I like more is to use a class which encapsulates the important data(in this case, state, candidate1, pledge for 1, candidate 2, and pledges for 2) Then you can store each of them in an array of the object type and loop through doing what is necessary. The other, more difficult and clumsy approach is to use a 2d array. Using 2d arrays however can become easily hard to manage.

Try implementing one of these approaches and show where you are getting stuck and ask specific questions. Post any code in code tags like this
[co de]
YOUR CODE HERE, dont include a space in the code tag as i have above
[/code]

Finally, start small, think about, implement and test one thing at a time, when it's finished, move on to the next step.

total delegates per candidate
this is a simple calculation of:
double dcRatio = total number of delegates / total number of candidates;

Determine and list the states won by each candidate based on the delegates.
whoever has the majority of delegates wins the state, therefore each candidate must have their own List which states can be added to
e.g.

Code:

---

class Candidate {
    java.util.List<State> statesWon = new java.util.ArrayList<State>();
}

---

and then you would have a method to add states to the statesWon List if the candidate won those states like this:

Code:

---

if (thisCandidate has majority) {
    thisCandidate.statesWon.add(thisState);
}

---

Determine and display any states where there were ties.
you can add a clause to the method above which calculates who won which state. If there was a tie add it to another List OR add it to both/all candidates who were tied and then determine if there was a tie depending on if more than 1 candidate has the same state on their statesWon List.

Compute the number of delegates each candidate needs to become the democraetic nominee for president
each state needs its own field of states needed to become a nominee i.e.

Code:

---

class State {
    int minStatesForNominee;
    //constructor
    State(int minStates) {
        minStatesForNominee = minStates;
    }
}

---

arrange each candidate's delegates in order from highest to lowest delegate count and display the state and number of delegates. Be sure to label the information by candidate.

if you store the candidates delegates as a list, you can use the sort method to do this easily.

Code:

---

class Candidate {
    java.util.List<Delegate> listOfDelegates = new java.util.ArrayList<Delegate>();
    Candidate(Delegate... delegates) {
        listOfDelegates.addAll(java.util.Arrays.asList(delegates));
    }
    public java.util.List<Delegate> getDelegates() {
        return listOfDelegates;
    }
}

---

Compile a list of candidates i.e.
java.util.List<Candidate> ListOfCandidates = new java.util.ArrayList<Candidate>();
//code to add all Candidates known to the list

Then use Collections.sort to sort the list of candidates by the delegate count

Code:

---

java.util.Collections.sort(ListOfCandidates, new Comparator() {
    public int compare(Object o1, Object o2) {
        Candidate c1 = (Candidate) o1;
        Candidate c2 = (Candidate) o2;
        int result;
        if (c1.getDelegates().size() < c2.getDelegates().size()) {
            result = 1;
        } else if (c1.getDelegates().size() > c2.getDelegates().size()) {
            result = -1;
        } else {
            result = 0;
        }
        return result;
    }
});

---

Determine and display the candidate with the most delegates.
once your list is sorted from highest to lowest delegates, the candidate with the highest delegates would be:

Code:

---

Candidate withHighestDelegates = ListOfCandidates.get(0);

---

i.e. the first item in the list