Question

Assignment 8.3: Phone Chatbot (10 pts)

• For this programming assignment, we write a basic chatbot program.
• For fun, try having a conversation with an online chatbot here or here.
• Some sources estimate that 25% of customer services will be handled by Chatbots in 2020, vs. 2% in 2017 (1).
• The chatbot we are designing must ask you the following questions:

1. What is your name?
2. What is your phone number?
3. What is your phone plan?
4. How many GB of data this month?

• Just don't give the chatbot your credit card number! ?

Project Specifications

• Write a chatbot program that interacts with the user as described in the Interaction section below to calculate a phone bill.
• Name the source code file Phonebot.java and include all your code in this single file.
• Be careful of the spelling, including capitalization, as you will lose points for a misspelled name. Naming is important in programming.
• Interaction: Interact with the user with the following inputs in the order given (and no other input) as follows:
• Name: open the conversation with a welcome and find out the user's name (String).
  • Reply with a greeting that displays the user's name, like "Thanks for calling RobuCast <user's name>!".
• Phone: find out the user's phone number (String).
  • Reply with a statement like "Looking up phone number <phone number>...".
• Plan: ask the user for their plan type entered as a basic, gold or unlimited
  • Reply by spelling out the full plan name, (basic package, gold members, unlimited plan)
• Data: request user's data usage in Gigabytes (double).
  • Reply with a comment that restates the amount of data, such as "Wow, <amount> is a lot of data! You should upgrade."
• Total: display the total bill and say goodbye to <user's name>.
• The parenthesis show the required data types for the input. Make sure to restate the input where indicated by the word "reply" or angle brackets.
• Assume the user enters only valid data.
• The phone bill is based on the phone plan and the number of Gigabytes (GB) of data used per month. Here are the different plans:
  • Basic package: the $24.95 per month plan provides 2 GB of data. Additional data are $7.00 per Gigabyte.
  • Gold member plan: the $39.95 per month plan provides 5 GB of data. Additional data are $5.00 per Gigabyte.
  • Unlimited plan: the $59.95 per month plan provides unlimited data.
• Hint: Assume that the user input will be one word responses at most. Use only input.next() statements in this program (no input.nextLine() statements).
• Example Output: The following shows example outputs. Your program prompts and output does not have to exactly match mine.
• Your program does need to reply to all input as stated in Interactions above, but you are free to give your chatbot a personality.
• Make sure the inputs are in the correct order and that you restate the data entered by the user.
• Otherwise, have fun with it!
• When you are finished, upload your PhoneBot.java file to Canvas

Welcome to RobuCast.
What is your name? jason
Thanks for calling RobuCast Jason!
What is your phone number? 555-2368
Looking up phone number 555-2368...
What is your phone plan? (basic/gold/unlimited) basic
Ah, the Basic package.
How many GB of data this month? 5
Wow, 5 GB is a lot of data! Maybe you should upgrade.
Your total bill is: $45.95.
Thanks for calling RobuCast, Jason!

Welcome to RobuCast.
What is your name? Polly
Thanks for calling RobuCast Polly!
What is your phone number? (669)221-6251
Looking up phone number (669)221-6251...
What is your phone plan? (basic/gold/unlimited) gold
Welcome Gold member. How many GB of data this month? 7
Wow, 7 GB is a lot of data! You should upgrade.
Your total bill is: $49.95.
Thanks for calling RobuCast, Polly Podcast!

Welcome to RobuCast.
What is your name? Richie$Rich
Thanks for calling RobuCast Richie$Rich!
What is your phone number? 555-0144
Looking up phone number 555-0144...
What is your phone plan? (basic/gold/unlimited) unlimited
The Unlimited plan. How many GB of data this month? 10
Wow, 10 GB is a lot of data!
Good thing you have the unlimited plan.
Your total bill is: $59.95.
Thanks for calling RobuCast, Richie$Rich!

Answer 1

Hello! I have written the code as you have requested for. I have explained the entire code within the comments of the code so that you can easily understand the code. I have also attached a screenshot of the output of the program for the given testcase .In case you have trouble understanding any part please do comment. I am always available for your help.

====================================Code begins here========================================

import java.io.*;
import java.util.Scanner; // Scanner class is used for reading inputs from the keyboard
class Phonebot{
public static void main(String[] args){
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);

/* I have defined a seperate print method for printing the output onto the screen.
The print methods use method overloading. Method overloading means that we can define multiple funcitons with the
same name but every function with the same name has a different parameter type or a different number of parameters .

Also you might have noticed that I have used % symbol for replacing the string with the variable. This % acts as a placeholder
of the text. It is a very common method used for creating a textfile or a document such as a bill which can be used to print in a
hard copy format.

*/

print("Welcome to RobuCast. What is your name?");
String name = scan.next();
print("Thanks for calling RobuCast %!", name);
print("What is your phone number?");
String phoneNumber = scan.next();
print("Looking up phone number %", phoneNumber);
print("What is your phone plan? (basic/gold/unlimited)");
String phonePlan = scan.next();
print("Ah, the % package.", phonePlan);
print("How many GB of data this month? ");
double monthlyData = scan.nextDouble();
print("Wow, % GB is a lot of data! Maybe you should upgrade.", monthlyData);
double bill = calculateBill(phonePlan, monthlyData);
print("Your total bill is: $%.", bill);
}

public static void print(String str){
System.out.println(str);
}

public static void print(String str, String placeHolder){

/*
We are selecting only the first letter in the string and converting it to an uppercase letter. We could have done
this by adding +65 to the character to convert it to upper case but using the predefined function looked much cleaner.

And as you can see I am using replace function to replace the placeholder with the variable
*/

placeHolder = placeHolder.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + placeHolder.substring(1);
String newStr = str.replace("%", placeHolder);
System.out.println(newStr);
}

public static void print(String str, double placeHolder){
String newStr = str.replace("%", String.valueOf(placeHolder));
System.out.println(newStr);
}

public static double calculateBill(String plan, double monthlyData){

/*
I could have used switch case for calculating bill but it looked a bit ugly when I wrote the code So
I have chose to use if else statements. This can be even more further reduced by defining their individual functions but
since there are only 3 plans and not much computation is required I have used on if else. You can change it to use functions
if you want to
*/

if(plan.equalsIgnoreCase("basic")){
double additionalData = monthlyData - 2;
double bill = 24.95 + additionalData * 7;
return bill;
} else if(plan.equalsIgnoreCase("gold")){
double additionalData = monthlyData - 5;
double bill = 39.95 + additionalData * 5;
return bill;
} else if(plan.equalsIgnoreCase("unlimited")){
return 59.95;
}
return monthlyData;
}

}

===========================================Code ends here ==================================