COP 2800 (Java Programming) Project #5 - Histogram Solution

Using MsgBox3.java or Average.java as examples, create a Java non-GUI stand-alone application that displays a histogram. A histogram is a kind of non-GUI bar chart (see example bar chart) that shows how many times a given value occurs in an input sample. The more times a given value appears, the longer the bar becomes for that value. With a histogram, you draw the chart sideways.

This program can be used to examine all sorts of frequency data. In the example below I used this histogram program to analyze the scores of a previous COP 2800 Exam #1. I entered in all the question numbers that were answered incorrectly, for each and every student exam. (For instance, on the first student answered questions 1, 3, 4, and 19 incorrectly, so I input: 1 3 4 19. The next student had questions 4, 17, 19, and 22 incorrect, so I continued by entering 4 17 19 22 this time. I kept this up for each student's exam.) The output shows 8 questions were much harder than the rest, and that two questions were so trivial nobody answered them incorrectly. (I have used this information to update my test bank.)

To actually draw the horizontal lines of the histogram, you must use the utils.TextKit.lineOfStars method you created in TextKit Project. This project will require the use of arrays and input.
Requirements:
Write a Java non-GUI program that will accept as input integer values, each value is a number between 1 and 25, with one value per line. The input might contain any number of values. The user will indicate the end of the list by signaling EOF, which on DOS/Windows systems is done by hitting a control-Z. (On Unix and Macintosh systems EOF can be signaled by hitting a control-D instead.)

The output shall consist of 25 lines of stars (asterisks), one line for each of the possible input values (the numbers 1 to 25). The number of stars drawn shows how many times each value was entered as input. Each line should be labeled with the value it is showing the bar for. So, if the input was:

C:\TEMP java Histogram
Enter integers <= 25, one per line, hit control-Z when done:
1
2
4
2
1
2
control-Z
Then the output would be:


1: **
2: ***
3:
4: *
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:

Your Java program must use the method called lineOfStars to create the stars for each line of output. This method must take a single int parameter which says how many stars to draw. This method must be a static method of a class called TextKit, which must be in a package called utils. This should be the method you created for the previous project. You are not allowed to modify your utils.TextKit class in any way from what you completed in the previous project without the approval of your instructor.

Your program will have its class in the default, nameless package and not in the utils package (where TextKit is located).
Sample Output: COP 2800 Exam I Analysis
(Note only a few of the more than 100 values actually typed by me are shown here.) You can read the input data from a file too, using a command line such as:

C:\TEMP java Histogram < data.txt
(To practice using the data I used, download HistogramData.txt and use that as the input file as shown above. This technique is known as input redirection and is very useful when testing.)

C:\TEMP java Histogram
Enter integers <= 25, one per line, hit control-Z when done:
1
5
16
11
2
23
3
2
...
16
control-Z

Histogram showing how many students
answered each question wrong:

1: **
2: *****
3: *****
4:
5: ***
6: **
7: *****
8:
9: **
10: ***************
11: *****
12: ********
13: *************
14: ********
15: *******
16: ***************
17: ***
18: **************
19: *******************
20: **********
21: *******
22: ********
23: *************
24: **************
25: ****************

C:\TEMP

Make sure you understand the histogram: each entered value is represented by one star, so the total number of stars equals the number of input values.