fizzbuzz/mock-census

CS 142 Mid-Term 2 (Fall 2010)

Mock Census Parser

Must read a file via HTTP or on the local filesystem.

(The file has ostensibly just passed validation and needs no further error-checking)

The file contains three newline-delimited directives per block and one EOF directive.

Each directive has a number of space-delimited attributes.

The directives appear in this order:

• Head - this must be the start of the block. Represents the head of household

  • name - first name of the individual
  • gender
  • eye_color
  • hair_color
  • height - feet as a float

• Depedent - 0 or many may exist. Represents children, spouse, etc

  • name
  • gender
  • age - 'minor' or 'adult'
  • height

• End - must close the block before the next 'Head'

• SUPER-END - a special end-of-file (EOF) marker

  • end MUST precede SUPER-END

Example Data File

Head Kevin M brown brown 6.15
Dependent Dagmar F adult 5.9
Dependent Dorkus M minor 5.7
End
Head Eve F blue brown 5.5
Dependent Adam M adult 6.2
Dependent Fred M minor 6.1
Dependent Fredwenda F adult 5.3
End
Head Pentultimus M brown brown 6
End
Head Beautisha F green red 5.7
Dependent Bodacious M minor 4.0
End
SUPER-END

Variations from the Spec

My implementation is written in JavaScript (which is like LISP, not at all like Java). I take advantage of some JavaScript-isms.

In my implementation I also handle # comments as well as some extremely minimalistic error-checking.