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Computer Programming 143

Practical 7

2017

Aim of Practical 7:

• Accessing an array with a pointer

• Learn to use functions with call-by-value and call-by-reference

• Use recursion and arrays to solve a numerical puzzle

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 Instructions

1. Attendance is compulsory for all the practical sessions of your assigned group.
See the study guide for more details.

2. The last section (usually the last 20 minutes) of the practical will be used for a
test.

3. If more than three tests have been missed for what ever reason, you will receive
an INCOMPLETE for the subject. See the study guide for more details.

4. You must do all assignments on your own. Students are encouraged to help each
other understand the problems and solutions, but each should write his/her own
code. By simply copying someone else’s code or solutions, you will not build an
understanding of the work.

5. You are responsible for your own progress. Ensure that you understand the prac-
tical work. Check your work against the memorandum that will be posted on
Wednesday afternoons on learn.sun.ac.za.

6. Use H:\CP143 as the Eclipse workspace folder for all projects but it is highly sug-
gested that you use a flash drive to backup all work done.

7. Create a new project for each assignment. See Creating an Eclipse Project in the
Basic Eclipse Project Handling Notes for instructions on how to do just that.

8. Include a comment block at the top of each source file according to the format
given. It must include the correct filename and date, your name and student
number, the copying declaration, and the title of the source file.

9. Indent your code correctly! Making your code readable is not beautification, it
is a time and life saving habit. Adhere to the standards (refer to the documents
on SUNLearn). You can use Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+I to auto-indent.

10. Comment your code sufficiently well. It is required for you and others to under-
stand what you have done.

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Assignment 7A

Goal: Using pointers and arrays together.

Getting started

1. Create a project named Assignment7A. Make sure that this is the only open project
in the workspace before compiling the program.

2. Include the standard comment block above your main function. Also, comment
your whole program appropriately.

Program description

1. Declare the following variables: an array of 5 floating-points numbers (double)

and a pointer of type double. Refer to chapters 6 and 7 in your textbook and/or
your class notes if you do not know how to do this.

2. Assign suitable values to ALL the elements in the double array.

3. Display the following message:

REFERRING TO MEMORY BLOCK USING ARRAY NAME:

4. Display each array element’s value and address in the following format:
Value stored at index ?: ___, Address at index ?: ___

Display the array index instead of the question marks, and the value and address
instead of the underscores. Both of these will be specific to your program.

5. Assign the starting address of the array to the double pointer.

6. Display the following message:

REFERRING TO MEMORY BLOCK BY USING THE POINTER WITH [] NOTATION:

7. Display each array element’s value and address by using the pointer as if it were
an array. Use subscript notation, e.g. square brackets, to access each element.

8. Display the following message:

REFERRING TO MEMORY BLOCK BY USING THE POINTER WITH * NOTATION:

9. Display each array element’s value by dereferencing the pointer, and its address
using the pointer directly. After each element is printed, increment the pointer to
move on to the next element. Make use of a for loop to move to next index.

10. Display the following message:

REFERRING TO MEMORY BLOCK BY USING THE POINTER PASSED TO FUNCTION:

11. Write the function with the following function definition:

void passPointer(double *start);

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 Call this function from the main with the pointer which contains the starting ad-
dress of the array. This function prints the elements within the array by dereferen-
cing and incrementing the pointer.

12. Your program’s output should look similar to the following. Note the variable value
or address will be specific to your program.

REFERRING TO MEMORY BLOCK USING ARRAY NAME:

At index 0: Value = 1.00, address = 2686736
At index 1: Value = 2.20, address = 2686744
At index 2: Value = 3.50, address = 2686752
At index 3: Value = 6.50, address = 2686760
At index 4: Value = 7.80, address = 2686768

REFERRING TO MEMORY BLOCK BY USING THE POINTER WITH [] NOTATION:

At index 0: Value = 1.00, address = 2686736
At index 1: Value = 2.20, address = 2686744
At index 2: Value = 3.50, address = 2686752
At index 3: Value = 6.50, address = 2686760
At index 4: Value = 7.80, address = 2686768

REFERRING TO MEMORY BLOCK BY USING THE POINTER WITH * NOTATION:

At index 0: Value = 1.00, address = 2686736
At index 1: Value = 2.20, address = 2686744
At index 2: Value = 3.50, address = 2686752
At index 3: Value = 6.50, address = 2686760
At index 4: Value = 7.80, address = 2686768

REFERRING TO MEMORY BLOCK BY USING THE POINTER PASSED TO FUNCTION:

At index 0: Value = 1.00, address = 2686736
At index 1: Value = 2.20, address = 2686744
At index 2: Value = 3.50, address = 2686752
At index 3: Value = 6.50, address = 2686760
At index 4: Value = 7.80, address = 2686768

13. Ensure that your code is indented correctly and that the { } braces are on the correct
lines. Use the prescribed textbook as guideline.

14. Ensure that you copy the Assignment7A project folder to a flash drive as a backup.

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Assignment 7B

Goal: Functions, pointers and arrays.

Getting started

1. Create a project named Assignment7B. Make sure that this is the only open project
in the workspace before compiling the program.

2. Include the standard comment block above your main function. Also, comment
your whole program appropriately.

Program description

This program calculates the torque due to a certain force at a specific point. Torque is
the twist or rotation about an axis that an applied force can have on an object. It can be
considered as the resulting moment of force, the result of applying force over a distance
about a pivot. The formula for torque is given by:

τ = r ×F

where
τ = torque vector[N.m],
r = position vector (moment arm)[m]
F = force vector [N].

Note that this is not normal multiplication but a cross product. These terms are NOT
scalars, they are vectors and thus have a magnitude AND a direction (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Torque diagram - showing the three vectors involved when calculating torque. Note
the directions. The torque’s direction is coming out of the page.

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 The torque vector is determined by taking the cross product of the position vector
and the force vector. The resulting torque’s direction is always perpendicular to the plane
that is formed by the other two vectors. The resulting torque’s magnitude is equivalent
to the product of the other two vectors’ magnitude AND the sin of the angle that these
two form with each other in their plane. In other words only the force component that is
perpendicular to the position vector causes torque.

A cross product between two vectors can be expressed in determinant form (see Equa-
tion 1). This will help us to retain the direction. We use i, j, k unit vectors to indicate
direction, where i indicates direction along the x-axis, j along the y-axis and k along the
z-axis.
¯ ¯
¯i j k ¯¯ ¯¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯
¯ r y r z ¯¯ ¯¯ r x r z ¯¯ ¯¯ r x r y ¯¯
r × F = ¯¯ r x r y r z ¯¯ = ¯¯ i − j + k
¯F F y F z ¯ ¯F x F z ¯ ¯F x F y ¯
x F y Fz
¯

In expanded form it is:

r × F = (r y F z − r z F y )i − (r x F z − r z F x )j + (r x F y − r y F x )k (1)

Write a program that asks the user for the position and force vectors and then cal-
culate and display the torque vector. Each vector will be entered and displayed in its
component form i.e. the i, j, k format.

1. In your main function, define a 2D array of floating-point values (consisting of 2

rows and 3 columns). The first row holds the components for the position vector
and the second row the components for the force vector. Thus the first column
contains the x-components, the second column the y-components and the last
column the z-components of the position and force vectors. The column position
of a value in the array indicates its direction. By using the array like this we have it
in the i, j, k format.

2. Write a function that asks the user to enter values for the different components
of the position and force vectors and load these values into the 2D array. Use the
following prototype:
void getPositionForce(float matrix[][3]);

The function returns nothing. This function will request a value for each index of
the 2D array from the user. Remember the first row must be the position vector val-
ues and the second row must be the force vector values. The first column contains
the x-component, the second column the y-component and the third column the
z-component.

3. Call this function with the correct arguments from your main function.

4. In the main function, define a 1D array of floating-point values of size 3. This array
holds the values for the torque vector.

5. Write a function that calculates the torque from the values that have been loaded
in the 2D array. Its prototype is:

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 void calcTorque(float posForce[][3], float torqueArr[]);

Note that no sizes are send through to this function. Can you think why? Use the
formula given in 1 to calculate the torque. For each torque component it is re-
quired to multiply and subtract the correct elements in the 2D array pfArr. The x-
component of torque is loaded into the first element of torqueArr, the y-component
into the second and the z-component into the third.
Note: make sure the signs are correct!

6. Call this function with the correct arguments from your main function.

7. Write a function that will display the calculated torque. Use the following proto-
type:
void displayTorque(float torque[]);

8. Call this function with the correct arguments from your main function.

9. Ensure that your code is indented correctly and that the { } braces are on the correct
lines. Use the prescribed textbook as guideline.

10. Ensure that you copy the Assignment7B project folder to a flash drive as a backup.