►Fundamentals II
Introduction to Class-based Program Design
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►5 Lecture 5:   Methods for self-referential lists
On this page:
Lecture outline
5.1 Representing lists
5.2 Basic list computations
count and total  Price
all  Before
5.3 Sorting
6.2.1
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5 Lecture 5: Methods for self-referential lists

Designing classes to represent lists. Methods on lists, including basic recursive methods, and sorting

Related files:
  BookLists.java  

Lecture outline
5.1 Representing lists

The following class diagram defines class hierarchy that represents a list of books in a bookstore:

               +--------------------------+

               | ILoBook                  |<----------------+

               +--------------------------+                 |

               +--------------------------+                 |

               | int count()              |                 |

               | double totalPrice()      |                 |

               | ILoBook allBefore(int y) |                 |

               | ILoBook sort()           |                 |

               +--------------------------+                 |

                          |                                 |

                         / \                                |

                         ---                                |

                          |                                 |

            -----------------------------                   |

            |                           |                   |

+--------------------------+   +--------------------------+ |

| MtLoBook                 |   | ConsLoBook               | |

+--------------------------+   +--------------------------+ |

+--------------------------+ +-| Book first               | |

| int count()              | | | ILoBook rest             |-+

| double totalPrice()      | | +--------------------------+

| ILoBook allBefore(int y) | | | int count()              |

| ILoBook sort()           | | | double totalPrice()      |

+--------------------------+ | | ILoBook allBefore(int y) |

                             | | ILoBook sort()           |

                             | +--------------------------+

                             v

                   +---------------+

                   | Book          |

                   +---------------+

                   | String title  |

                   | String author |

                   | int year      |

                   | double price  |

                   +---------------+

Let’s make some examples

//Books Book htdp = new Book("HtDP", "MF", 2001, 60);
Book lpp = new Book("LPP", "STX", 1942, 25);
Book ll = new Book("LL", "FF", 1986, 10);
 
// lits of Books LoBook mtlist = new MtLoBook();
LoBook lista = new ConsLoBook(this.lpp, this.mtlist);
LoBook listb = new ConsLoBook(this.htdp, this.mtlist);
LoBook listc = new ConsLoBook(this.lpp,
new ConsLoBook(this.ll, this.listb));
LoBook listd = new ConsLoBook(this.htdp,
new ConsLoBook(this.ll,
new ConsLoBook(this.lpp, this.mtlist)));
5.2 Basic list computations

Given this preceding class diagram, we would like to design methods to answer the following questions

Each of the four questions concerns a list of books, and so we start by designing the appropriate method headers and purpose statements in the interface ILoBook:

// In LoBook // ------- // count the books in this list public int count();
 
// produce a list of all books published before the given date // from this list of books public ILoBook allBefore(int year);
 
// calculate the total price of all books in this list public double totalPrice();
 
// produce a list of all books in this list, sorted by their title public ILoBook sort();

We now have to define these methods in both the class MtLoBook and in the class ConsLoBook. (You may find it helpful to recall similar functions in DrRacket. Remember from last lecture the pattern given to us by virtue of Dynamic dispatch: we take each clause of the cond that checked for a particular variant and “move” the right-hand sides of those clauses into the methods defined in the corresponding class, then eliminate the cond altogether.)

The design recipe asks us to make examples. For clarity, we write them in an abbreviated manner, just showing the actual computation and the expected outcome:

// Examples for the class MtLoBook // ---------------------------- mtlist.count() => 0
mtlist.totalPrice() => 0
mtlist.allBefore() => mtlist

and our methods become:

// In MtLoBook: // ---------  
// count the books in this list public int count(){ return 0; }
 
// produce a list of all books published before the given date // from this empty list of books public ILoBook allBefore(int year) { return this; }
 
// calculate the total price of all books in this list public double totalPrice() { return 0; }

Notice that the values produced by these methods are the base case values we have been in DrRacket for the empty lists. The count for an empty list is zero; the totalPrice of no Books is zero as well; and starting with an empty list there are no Books at all, let alone any before a given year.

Note: We will return to the sort method later.

Of course, there will be more work to do in the ConsLoBook class. First, examples!

// Examples // -------- lista.count() => 1
listc.count() => 3
 
lista.totalPrice() => 25
listd.totalPrice() => 95
 
lista.allBefore(2000) => lista
listb.allBefore(2000) => mtlist
listc.allBefore(2000) => new ConsLoBook(lpp, new ConsLoBook(ll,mtlist))

The design recipe asks us now to derive the template. A template serves as a starting point for any method inside ConsLoBook:

/* TEMPLATE: --------- Fields: ... this.first ... -- Book ... this.rest ... -- ILoBook Methods: ... this.count() ... -- int ... this.totalPrice() ... -- double ... this.allBefore(int year) ... -- ILoBook Methods for Fields: ... this.rest.count() ... -- int ... this.rest.totalPrice() ... -- double ... this.rest.allBefore(int year) ... -- ILoBook */
count and totalPrice

In the template, this.rest.count() produces the count of all books in the rest of this list — and so the method body in the class ConsLoBook becomes:

// count the books in this list int count(){ return 1 + this.rest.count(); }

In the template, this.rest.totalPrice() produces the total price of all books in the rest of this list — and so the method body in the class ConsLoBook just adds to this value the price if the first book in the list:

// calculate the total price of all books in this list double totalPrice() {
return this.first.price + this.rest.totalPrice();
}

Do Now!

Did you notice how similar this method body is to the one above for count? In Fundies 1, we had a terser way of expressing this sort of computation. What kind of operation on lists are we computing here? We will see in Lecture 13: Abstracting over behavior how to improve this code.

allBefore

In the template, this.rest.allBefore(year) produces a list of all books in the rest of this list published before the given date. The only work that remains is to decide whether the first book of this list belongs in the output list, and either add it to the result or not. If only we could determine whether the given Book was published before the given year! (Look carefully at the template: we cannot access this.book.year, because we do not have access to fields of fields.) So we add a method to our wish list, and we will delegate the job of deciding this question to the Book class itself. The method body in the class ConsLoBook becomes:

// produce a list of all books published before the given date // from this empty list of books ILoBook allBefore(int year) {
if (this.first.publishedBefore(year)) {
return new ConsLoBook(this.first, this.rest.allBefore(year));
} else {
return this.rest.allBefore(year);
}
}

(This method introduces a new piece of syntax: if statements. An if-statement always follows the same basic template:
if (some condition) {
//...statements to execute if condition was true... } else {
//...statements to execute if condition was false... }
where only one of the branches of the if executes its statements. Note that unlike DrRacket, an if in Java is not an expression, and does not produce a value. In the code for allBefore above, the if statement itself does not return a value; the return statements inside it do.)

We’re not quite done; we have a method remaining on our wish list, so we must add to the class Book the method

// was this book published before the given year? boolean publishedBefore(int year) {
return this.year < year;
}

Exercise

Flesh out the rest of the design of this method, adding examples and tests.

Of course, for all of these methods, we end the design process by making sure all tests run. The actual test methods will be:

// tests for the method count boolean testCount(Tester t) {
return
t.checkExpect(this.mtlist.count(), 0) &&
t.checkExpect(this.lista.count(), 1) &&
t.checkExpect(this.listd.count(), 3);
}
 
// tests for the method totalPrice boolean testTotalPrice(Tester t) {
return
t.checkInexact(this.mtlist.totalPrice(), 0.0, 0.001) &&
t.checkInexact(this.lista.totalPrice(), 10.0, 0.001) &&
t.checkInexact(this.listc.totalPrice(), 95.0, 0.001) &&
t.checkInexact(this.listd.totalPrice(), 95.0, 0.001);
}
 
// tests for the method allBefore boolean testAllBefore(Tester t) {
return
t.checkExpect(this.mtlist.allBefore(2001), this.mtlist) &&
t.checkExpect(this.lista.allBefore(2001), this.lista) &&
t.checkExpect(this.listb.allBefore(2001), this.mtlist) &&
t.checkExpect(this.listc.allBefore(2001),
new ConsLoBook(this.lpp, new ConsLoBook(this.ll, this.mtlist))) &&
t.checkExpect(this.listd.allBefore(2001),
new ConsLoBook(this.ll, new ConsLoBook(this.lpp, this.mtlist)));
}
5.3 Sorting

The last method to design was defined in the interface ILoBook as:

// produce a list of all books in this list, sorted by their price public ILoBook sort();

An empty list is sorted already, so in the class MtLoBook the method becomes:

// produce a list of all books in this list, sorted by their price public ILoBook sort() {
return this;
}

We do not need to create a new empty list, this one works perfectly well.

We need examples for the more complex cases. We recall our sample data:

// sample books Book htdp = new Book("HtDP", "MF", 2001, 60);
Book lpp = new Book("LPP", "STX", 1942, 10);
Book ll = new Book("LL", "FF", 1986, 25);
 
// sample lists of books ILoBook mtlist = new MtLoBook();
ILoBook lista = new ConsLoBook(this.lpp, this.mtlist);
ILoBook listb = new ConsLoBook(this.htdp, this.mtlist);
ILoBook listc = new ConsLoBook(this.lpp,
new ConsLoBook(this.ll, this.listb));
ILoBook listd = new ConsLoBook(this.ll,
new ConsLoBook(this.lpp,
new ConsLoBook(this.htdp, this.mtlist)));
ILoBook listdUnsorted =
new ConsLoBook(this.lpp,
new ConsLoBook(this.htdp,
new ConsLoBook(this.ll, this.mtlist)));

and our tests will be:

// test the method sort for the lists of books boolean testSort(Tester t) {
return
t.checkExpect(this.listc.sort(), this.listd) &&
t.checkExpect(this.listdUnsorted.sort(), this.listd);
}

Next we look at the template that is relevant for this question:

/* TEMPLATE: --------- Fields: ... this.first ... -- Book ... this.rest ... -- ILoBook Methods: ... this.sort() ... -- ILoBook Methods for Fields: ... this.rest.sort() ... -- ILoBook */

Reading the purpose statement for sort carefully, we see that (like allBefore above) this.rest.sort() does almost all the work for us — it produces a sorted rest of this list. What makes this method more challenging than allBefore is that we aren’t simply prepending to the beginning of that resulting list; we need to insert the first element of the list into its appropriate place in the sorted rest of the list. This sounds like a job for a helper method, so we add it to our wish list and move on.

Do Now!

When we do get to it, where should this helper method be defined?

Implementing sort for ConsLoBook is now straightforward: we just translate the English sentence above into Java.
// In ConsLoBook // produces a list of the books in this non-empty list, sorted by price public ILoBook sort() {
return this.rest.sort() // sort the rest of the list... .insert(this.first); // and insert the first book into that result }

Now we need to finish off the items on our wish list. We need insert to produce a list whose contents are the same as the contents of this (already sorted!) list, but with the given Book inserted into its proper place. To do this, we’ll certainly need to compare whether one book is cheaper than another, so we’ll add that to our wish list and move on.

Do Now!

Implement insert for ConsLoBook. Pay careful attention to the use of the template to guide your recursive calls.

If we define insert as a method in ConsLoBook...

// in ConsLoBook // insert the given book into this list of books // already sorted by price public ILoBook insert(Book b) {
if (this.first.cheaperThan(b)) {
return new ConsLoBook(this.first, this.rest.insert(b));
} else {
return new ConsLoBook(b, this);
}
}

...Java complains.

Do Now!

Why? What did we forget? (Hint: if you try this code in Eclipse, where does it indicate there are errors?)

Yes, we haven’t implemented cheaperThan yet. Let’s fix that right now:
// in Book // is the price of this book cheaper than the price of the given book? boolean cheaperThan(Book that) {
return this.price < that.price;
}

But still we have a problem. We’ve defined insert on ConsLoBook, but in the third line, we write this.rest.insert(b) — and we do not know anything about this.rest except that it’s an ILoBook, and ILoBook says nothing about an insert method!

Ok let’s add the method to our interface:
// in ILoBook // insert the given book into this list of books // already sorted by price public ILoBook insert(Book b);

And now we have fixed our problem here, only to create a new problem elsewhere.

Do Now!

Now what did we miss?

This is another, subtle example of the benefits of writing down our types explicitly. In DrRacket, if we tried to define a function over a union type, and forgot a case, the only way we’d find out is if a test caught the lapse. Here, Java can immedately warn us that we’ve forgotten something

Now that we’ve promised that all ILoBooks must implement insert, we need to implement it on MtLoBook too. How can we insert a Book into its proper place in an empty list? By building a list with only the given book in it:

// in MtLoBook // insert the given book into this empty list of books // already sorted by price public ILoBook insert(Book b) {
return new ConsLoBook(b, this);
}

And now we are finally done!

Exercise

This sorting order is called "lexicographic", and is the generalization of sorting alphabetically to account for digits, punctuation, other alphabets, and all the other characters allowed in strings.

Suppose we wanted to sort the books by title, instead of by price. We cannot use the < operator to compare Strings. Instead, Strings have a method compareTo(String) that returns:

  • -1 if this String is lexicographically before the given String

  • 0 if the strings are lexicographically equal

  • 1 if this String is lexicographically after the given String

Use this method to define a method titleBefore on Books, analogous to cheaperThan, and revise sort and/or insert to use it.

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