OPS445/A1-F23-NAANDD
Assignment 1
Overview
Your assignment will be to return an end date (including day of week), given a start date and number of days.
Example:
python3 assignment1.py 20/09/2023 100
The end date is Fri, 29/12/2023.
Restrictions
- You may only use
sys
for parsing command line arguments. - No other modules are allowed
Instructions
The assignment will be broken into two milestones and one final submission. Please update your repository for each milestone and complete the final submission in order to earn all marks.
- Milestone 1 will be due on October 13 at 5:00pm.
- Milestone 2 will be due on October 20 at 5:00pm.
- The Final submission will be due on November 3 at 5:00pm.
Preparation
- Accept the assignment on Blackboard.
- Once you accepted the assignment, you will get access to a starting repo.
- Add your code to the existing
assignment1.py
file. - Commit after each significant change to the code.
- You can never have too many commits. GitHub is your proof of work and your backup if things go wrong.
Milestone 1
- You are provided with a function called
after()
. This function is complete and should successfully return the next day’s date when provided with a starting date inDD/MM/YYYY
format. You can experiment with this function by importing it into the Python interpreter:
from assignment1 import after
after('25/01/2023')
- Use your understanding of
after()
to complete thebefore()
function. This should return a previous day’s date.
This Milestone will also ask you to refactor your code. This means modifying existing code to make it more portable.
- Complete the
leap_year()
function, using the relevant code that’s already insideafter()
. - Edit your
after()
function. Replace any code that calculates leap years with aleap_year
function call.
- Repeat the same process for the
mon_max()
function. - Verify that
after()
still works after your changes. - Don’t forget to push your code.
Check Your Work
Use the check script to verify your work so far.
python3 CheckA1.py -f -v TestAfter
python3 CheckA1.py -f -v TestBefore
python3 CheckA1.py -f -v TestLeap
python3 CheckA1.py -f -v TestMonMax
Feedback
I will provide you feedback on GitHub. Check the Issues tab, and make any changes that are required before the next deadline. You can close the issue to indicate that you have seen the comment.
Milestone 2
- Complete the
day_iter()
function. Given a starting date and number of days,day_iter()
should call eitherafter()
(if the number is positive) orbefore()
(if the number is negative). inside of a loop. Once the loop as completed, this function should return the end date as a DD/MM/YYYY string. - Complete the
valid_date()
function. This should use error checking to make sure that any date entered by the user is valid.
Check Your Work
Use the check script to verify your work.
-
python3 CheckA1.py -f -v TestValidDate
-
python3 CheckA1.py -f -v TestDayIter
Feedback
Once again I will provide you feedback on GitHub. Check the Issues tab, and make any changes that are required before the next deadline. You can close the issue to indicate that you have seen the comment.
Final Submission
For the final submission you should integrate your functions into a working script, add relevant comments and implement some error checking so that invalid dates will cause a usage message to be displayed. In addition, if the second argument is not a valid number, usage should also be printed.
- In the main block, check the number of arguments. The first argument must be a valid date, and the second argument should be a valid number (positive or negative).
- Call the
day_iter()
function and save the end date. Use the providedday_of_week()
function to get the day. - Complete the
usage()
function. This should print a helpful message to the user when they make a mistake, and exit.
Final Checks
-
python3 CheckA1.py -f -v TestFinal
to test the final version of your script.
Submitting Your Code For Review
- Push your code to GitHub before the deadline.
- In addition, submit your code to Blackboard. A link will be provided.
Formatting And Style
A significant amount of your mark will be based on the things that aren’t your code. Please review the following guidelines to maximise your grade.
Comments And Documentation
You need to be commenting your code. The following documentation is required:
- in-line comments: Any line of code that is doing something non-obvious should be commented. Explain why you are doing something, rather than what you are doing.
- function docstrings: After your
def
line, you enter a docstring inside ““. Any function that doesn’t already come with a docstring should have one. - top-level docstring: You will have noticed that the top of your
assignment1.py
file already has this docstring. Complete the Academic Honesty declaration and complete the docstring.
PEP
The PEP-8 Style Guide is an official Python document that describes best practices for formatting your code. You should follow this guide as much as possible. You may find that using a linter to check style to be useful.
Functions and Variables
- In addition to the required functions, you may create as many functions as you need.
- Functions should be in lower case, and spaces should be represented with an underscore. For example:
function_name
. - Any data used inside of a function should be passed in as a parameter. Avoid global variables.
- Variables should have a sensible name. Avoid naming things
x
. Replacex
with a more suitable name. - Variables should be in lower case, and spaces represented by an underscore. For example:
start_date
.
Git Commits
A workplace will have its own policy about how often to commit, and how to document commits. For us, git commits are your proof of work. Assignments that lack commits are subject to Academic Integrity review.
- A good practice is to create a commit for every significant change to your code. At the very least, commit after completing each of the required functions.
- An acceptable commit message needs to short, but should also describe the change. For example:
git commit -m "completed the leap_year function"
.
Rubric
Element | Marks |
---|---|
Milestone 1: | |
TestAfter Checks | 3 |
TestBefore Checks | 3 |
TestLeap Checks | 2 |
TestMonMax Checks | 2 |
Milestone 2: | |
TestValidDate Checks | 4 |
TestDayIter Checks | 6 |
Final Submission: | |
TestFinal Checks | 16 |
Comments and Documentation | 5 |
github use | 5 |
functions and style | 2 |
error checking | 2 |
Sample Output
assignment1.py 18/05/2023 50
The end date is Fri, 07/07/2023.
Works with a negative number:
assignment1.py 21/05/2023 -50
The end date is Sat, 01/04/2023.
Wrong number of arguments:
assignment1.py 21/05/2023
Usage: assignment1.py YYYY-MM-DD NN
If either the date or the number is invalid, print usage:
assignment1.py 31/02/2023 gorilla
Usage: assignment1.py YYYY-MM-DD NN