HW12: ArrayDictionary due Mon 19 Apr 10:00

Allowed and Disallowed Resources

• The Java Command Sheets handed out in class (and also available here: https://josephus.hsutx.edu/classes/all/commandsheets/).
• Examples and sample code found here: https://josephus.hsutx.edu/classes/p2/source/. NOTE: The same examples can be cloned from this repository: https://tsergeant@bitbucket.org/tsergeant/p2_examples.git
• A Java compiler with or without an IDE. The text editor you use can provide syntax highlighting, but must not generate code.
• Video instructions provided in Canvas as part of this course. You MAY NOT USE any other video resources.
• The course notes that accompany the video instructions which can be found here: https://josephus.hsutx.edu/classes/p2/coursenotes.php
• The official Java Documentation found here: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/21/
• Any handouts provided by the instructor as part of this course.
• Your own course notes
• Your instructor
• Discussions about the assignment with other students as long as you never look at the code produced by another student and you never receive instructions about solving the homework. That is, discussions need to be about concepts and understanding the technologies and not about how to solve the particular problem posed in this assignment.

You may NOT use/access:

• Resources not expressly listed above, including, but not limited to, the following ...
• Source code not provided as part of this assignment. (Obviously, this includes, but is not limited to, source code written by other students whether current or in the past).
• Code-generating tools (of which ChatGPT is one example).
• Any web sites not directly linked to from the homework assignment.

Failure to abide by these guidelines will result in a zero for the assignment and the incident will be reported to the university provost as a violation of the university academic integrity policy. A second incident of academic dishonesty (whether from this course or another computer science course) will result in an F in the course.

Description

You recall that the program in the previous assignment took quite a while to run on the large dictionary data file. When you consider that a modern computer can do billions of operations a second, it sheds light on how many steps our solution required the computer to perform!

One goal of this assignment is to make the program run faster by being more efficient. You recall that binary search is touted as being significantly faster than a sequential search. It is in preparation for using a binary search that we put the elements into an array and then sorted them.

Suggested steps for completing this assignment:

1. You'll probably want to use a small, hand-coded data file for your initial testing.
2. Write a binary search method according to the UML diagram in the lab assignment. This search should be based on the compareTo() method that compares the anagram/sorted words (same as was used to sort the array). Test, document, commit.
3. You will still have a countAnagrams() method as in the previous assignment. This one, however will use as its first step a call to the binary search method. Remember that in the newly sorted array, all words that are anagrams of one another (members of the same anagram family, so to speak) are adjacent to one another. So, when the binary search method returns an index we don't know whether the index will be at the beginning, end, or middle of the anagram family. So, you'll need to do a sequential search moving up and down the array starting from the provided index counting as you go until you reach a word that is no longer an anagram match. Keep in mind that if the anagram family appears at the beginning or end of the array you need to avoid running off the front or back of the array as you count. Take some time to really test this function. Once it is working, test, document, commit.
4. Now you can write the showBigAnagramFamilies() method which should be fairly straightfoward.
5. Once everything is working you can switch to start using the large data file. Test, document, commit, push.

Grading

Your program should be completely working and should follow all of the programming conventions named in class and explained in http://josephus.hsutx.edu/classes/all/javaconventions/ (including the use of comments that conform to the JavaDoc guidelines).

The instructor will grade your work based on what you have pushed to the hosted homework repository you have shared. For all assignments the program is due before the beginning of class on the due date. Repositories that show a commit time after that time will be graded as late.