Question

I need help with this question for programming. The language we use is C++

The program should ask the user if they want to search for a boy or girl name. It should then ask for the name search the appropriate array for the name and display a message saying what ranking that name received, if any. The name files (BoyNames.txt and GirlNames.txt) are in order from most popular to least popular and each file contains two hundred names. The main method should ask if the user wants to search for a boys’ name or a girls’ name. It should then call a method that fills an array with the appropriate gender names. Then ask the user for the name and call a method that will accept the array and the name as parameters. This method will search the array for the name and return the ranking. The main should then report the ranking, if any.

Answer 1

C++ code for the given problem is copied below including screenshots. Name list of boys and girls have been kept in BoyNames.txt and GirlNames.txt files. Program follows the steps as given in instructions, i.e., asks user for gender, based on that input loads the nameList array from appropriate file, then asks user to specify the name to search in that array and finally searches through the array for that name and if found shows the ranking to the user.

Appropriate comments have been added and sample program output is also copied below.

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#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <algorithm>

using namespace std;

const int NAME_LIST_LENGTH = 200;

//Function to load name array passed by reference from specified name file
void loadNameArray(string* list, string filePath)
{
    ifstream nameFile(filePath);
    if (nameFile.is_open())
    {
        int i=0;
        string line;
        while (getline (nameFile,line) || i<NAME_LIST_LENGTH)
        {
          list[i] = line;
          i++;
        }
        nameFile.close();
    }
    else
        cout << "Unable to open file:" << filePath;
}

//Main function
int main()
{
    char gender;                                        //Stores input gender from user
    const string BOY_NAMES_FILE = "BoyNames.txt";       //Constant string to hold boy name file path
    const string GIRL_NAMES_FILE = "GirlNames.txt";     //Constant string to hold boy name file path
    string nameList[NAME_LIST_LENGTH];                  //String array to store NAME_LIST_LENGTH (200) names from file
    string name, nameCopy;                              //Constant string to hold boy name file path
  
    //Ask user for which gender he/she wants to search names for
    cout << "Search for a boys' or girls' name (specify 'B' or 'G'): ";
    cin >> gender;
  
    //Load appropriate file, i.e., either for boys or girls depending upon gender specified by user
    if(gender == 'B' || gender == 'b')
    {
        loadNameArray(nameList, BOY_NAMES_FILE);
    }
    else if(gender == 'G' || gender == 'g')
    {
        loadNameArray(nameList, GIRL_NAMES_FILE);
    }
  
    //Ask user for the name he/she wants to search and find ranking in the array
    cout << "Enter the name: ";
    cin >> name;
    nameCopy=name; //Saves a copy of name for displaying in final output ranking string as original variable will be transformed to lower case
  
    //Transform name to lower case for comparision
    transform(name.begin(), name.end(), name.begin(), ::tolower);
  
    //Run a loop NAME_LIST_LENGTH (200) times to search through loaded nameList for user specified name
    for (int i=0; i<NAME_LIST_LENGTH; i++)
    {
        //Transform nameList[i] to lower case for comparision with name
        transform(nameList[i].begin(), nameList[i].end(), nameList[i].begin(), ::tolower);
        if(nameList[i].compare(name) == 0) //Compare nameList[i] and name, 0 means equal
        {
            //Name found, display the ranking to the user
            cout << "Name " << nameCopy << " is found to be ranked at: " << i+1 << ".";
            //End the program
            exit(0);
        }
    }
  
    //Name not found since code is still running
    cout << "Name " << nameCopy << " not found in the list.";
  
    return 0;
}

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Screenshot:

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Sample Output: