Assignment 3

Question #1

Write and document a Python script maxANchar.py which takes as a command-line argument a textfile and computes and prints the alphanumeric character that occurs the most times in that file along with that number of occurrences. Your script must work on datafiles mc1.dat, mc2.dat, mc3.dat, mc4.dat, and mc5.dat to produce the output given in typescript-file maxANchar.script. You may assume that exactly one character occurs the maximum number of times.

Question #2

A digraph is an arbitrary two-character string. Write and document a Python script tcomp3.py which takes as command-line arguments a master textfile, a digraph, and two or more comparison textfiles and prints (1) the number of occurrences of the given digraph in the master textfile and each of the comparison textfile and (2) the name of the comparison textfile that is most similar to the master textfile relative to that digraph, i.e., the comparison textfile whose count for that digraph is closest to the count for that digraph in the master textfile. Your script must work on datafiles tc1.dat, tc2.dat, and tc3.dat to produce the output given in typescript-file tcomp3.script. You may assume that each textfile has at most one million words and that the characters in the digraph are arbitrary, i.e., occurrences of digraphs in the file can overlap.

Hints

You may find the answer scripts for Assignment #2 of use.

Submission

Please hand in printed copies of all of your Python script files. You must also submit these files electronically using the submit-assignment command. Note that each script file must have the following comment block at the top, where the X's are replaced with the appropriate information, followed by a docstring briefly describing the program in that script. For instance, my script for Question #1 of this assignment would begin with the following comment block:

#########################################################
##  CS 2500 (Fall 2011), Assignment #3, Question #1    ##
##   Script File Name: cubestat.py                     ##
##       Student Name: Todd Wareham                    ##
##         Login Name: harold                          ##
##              MUN #: 8008765                         ##
#########################################################

You do not have to develop your code on our CS departmental systems. However, as your code will be compiled and tested on our CS departmental systems as part of the assignment marking process, you should ensure that your code compiles and runs correctly on at least one of these systems.

Additional Notes:

• August 10, 12:10pm
  Assignment #3 posted.

Created: August 10, 2011
Last Modified: August 10, 2011