CSC 110: Computer Programming I, Autumn 2017

Homework 5 (Baby Names) FAQ

Q: How do I get started?

A: Look over the IMDB movie example from lecture.

Q: How do I make my code work for the 0 case?

A: The 0 ranking case is one of the hardest parts of the assignment. We recommend getting everything else to work first before worrying about the 0 case. You'll need to insert code to handle 0 differently than other rankings. One hint: A ranking of 0 is really more like a ranking of 1000, so it may help you to treat it that way in parts of your code.

Make sure to avoid redundant code. If you're doing the same thing in many branches of an if/else, that's redundant. It will make your code harder to write and more likely to have bugs.

Q: Why are my coordinates wrong? How can I fix them?

A: Try using print statements to see what they are.

Q: There are some names that are found in meanings.txt but not in names.txt. What should I do in such a case?

A: Treat it as the name-not-found case. Print the error message and don't display any rankings or meaning data.