Upon Further Review Of The Previous Assignment You Have Dete

Upon Further Riview Of The Previous Assignment You Have Determined Th

Upon further riview of the previous assignment, you have determined that you can make your application (from week 1) more efficient by replacing the arrays with lists. Load employee information from a text file selected by the user into a list collection consisting of Managers and Developers. The format of your text file should be something like this: First Name, Last Name, Street Address, City, State, Zip, Employee Type (Manager or Developer), Cost Center (0 if Developer), supervisor, Tax Type (NA if Manager).

Paper For Above instruction

In the development of software applications, choosing the appropriate data structures is crucial for efficiency, scalability, and maintainability. The previous assignment involved using arrays to manage employee data. However, arrays have limitations such as fixed size and less flexible manipulation capabilities. Transitioning to a list-based approach offers dynamic sizing and easier management of data, especially when dealing with unpredictable or changing data volumes.

The task at hand involves re-engineering an existing application to load employee information from a user-selected text file into a list collection that contains objects representing Managers and Developers. This change enhances the application's flexibility and performance.

Designing the Data Model

Firstly, it is essential to define the object-oriented structure for the employee data. A base class named `Employee` can be created, encapsulating common properties such as first name, last name, address, city, state, zip code, supervisor, and tax type. Two subclasses, `Manager` and `Developer`, extend this base class, adding specific attributes like `costCenter` for developers and any additional properties relevant to managers.

This object-oriented design allows for polymorphism, enabling the application to handle both managers and developers uniformly when stored in a list.

Implementing File Loading with Lists

The primary improvement involves replacing array data structures with lists, such as `List`. This allows dynamic resizing and easier insertion/removal of employee objects. The process begins with prompting the user to select a text file, perhaps via a file dialog interface, enhancing user interactivity and flexibility.

Once the file is selected, the application reads the file line by line. Each line is parsed based on comma separation, mapping the extracted tokens to the relevant properties of the employee objects. The application checks the `Employee Type` token to determine whether to instantiate a `Manager` or a `Developer`. For a developer, the `costCenter` is set; for a manager, the `Tax Type` is set to "NA".

Handling Data Parsing and Validation

Parsing input data must include validation to ensure the correctness of data types (e.g., Zip code as integer, Cost Center as integer) and the presence of all required fields. Error handling routines should notify users of malformed lines without terminating the entire loading process.

Benefits of Using Lists

Replacing arrays with lists improves code maintainability and scalability. It allows the application to handle an arbitrary number of employees, which is particularly practical in real-world scenarios where employee counts fluctuate. Moreover, lists provide built-in methods for searching, sorting, and manipulating data, streamlining development.

Conclusion

By adopting list collections for employee data storage, the application becomes more efficient and adaptable. This improvement minimizes manual array management, reduces potential bugs associated with fixed-size arrays, and simplifies data operations. Overall, transitioning to lists aligns with best practices in software development, emphasizing flexibility and scalability.

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