Spring 2020
Computer Science I Maíra Marques Samary PhD
Section 2 – M-W-F – 8:00AM – Fulton 250
Section 3 – M-W-F – 9:00AM – Fulton 250


TA’s Office Hours – all at Fulton 160
Hang Yin - Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM - [email protected]
Erin Berg – Wednesdays 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM- [email protected]
Ann Pan - Mondays 2:15PM – 4:15 PM - [email protected]
Phillip Tracy – Tuesday 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM - [email protected]


Assignment 5

Due date – 04/01/20 7:00 PM

General Instructions

Create a folder named HW5_LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME. You will populate the folder with ALL of
the .py files you write for this homework. To submit the homework, verify the folder includes all
your .py files, compress (zip) the folder then upload to Canvas. Remember to include the
following comments at the top of each of your .py files:

# author:
# assignment:
# description:


What to submit in Canvas?
Make sure all your files are saved in the folder HW5_LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME, then
compress (zip) the folder and upload to Canvas.

If you encounter any problems in completing the assignment or in the submission
process, please don't hesitate to ask for help. The sooner, the better!




Problem
Let’s tackle a political question. It is standard political dogma that Democrats “want big
government” and that Republicans “create jobs.” Let’s see if data supports the dogma. The
official source of employment statistics is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
(http://www.bls.gov/data/#employment ) and we have collected data for private
employment and government employment. Our assumption is that if a party is creating
jobs, then private employment will increase, and if a party is creating bigger government,
then government employment will increase. Your job is to extract that information from
the files provided.

Specification
There are two employment data files provided. Both have comma-separated data. Look at
the headings to understand their format. Numerical values are in thousands.
• government_employment.txt
• private_employment.txt

There is also a comma-separated file on presidents, their years, and their political party.
• presidents.txt

Since the transition from one term to another occurs partway through January, the last
year listed for any president is the same as the first year of the next president. To keep
things simple let’s, count January entirely for the incoming president. That is, in the file the
last year listed for a president will not count.
For example, George W. Bush’s last year is listed as 2009 but he was president for only a
few weeks that year so we will not count him as being president in 2009.
Also, watch out for the “Jr.” for President Carter when you are reading the file—there is an
extra comma.
What you have to do:
1. Your program will prompt for the file names. Use exceptions to check that each file was
opened without an error. 

2. All president data can only come from the presidents.txt file, i.e. you cannot code
specifics about presidents into your program. We will test your program using a file of
that format, but with different entries, for example we may test on a file that has three
of the lines of that file. 

3. As an academic requirement, your program must define and use at least two
functions in a meaningful way. (Feel free to use more functions; I did.) 

4. Calculate and display in columns (see sample below):
a) the average monthly private employment for each political party 

b) the average monthly government employment for each political party 

c) the private employment of the first month and last month of each president 

d) the change in private employment from the first month to the last month of each
president; 


Hint:

There is a useful formatting type for printing percentage 

print("{:6.2%}".format(1/3))

 33.33% 

There is a useful formatting type that puts commas in numbers (either int or float): 

print(“{:,}”.format(123456})
123,456



Sample Output
(note that we will test on the provided president’s file as well as a subset of the file)

report the change as both a difference and as a percentage

RUBRIC
Excellent (100% of
points))
Average (60% of points) Needs Improving (40%
of points)
Possible
Points
Function
module
• Functions are
implemented
properly
• Function headers are
complete and
accurate
• Functions are generally
implemented properly,
but exhibit minor
errors.
• Function headers are
generally complete and
accurate, but some
minor details are
missing.
• Functions are
implemented
improperly.
• Function headers
are sketchy or
missing.
3
User
interface
• UI formatting is
appropriate.
• Prompts are complete
and concise.
• UI formatting exhibits
minor flaws.
• UI formatting is
sketchy or
haphazard.
1
• Information is
presented in a
meaningful form.
• Prompts are not
completely clear and
concise.
• Information
presentation is slightly
confusing.
• Prompts are
confusing or
missing completely.
• Information
presentation is
completely
confusing.
Output (file
with DNA
barcode)
Parameters
smaller
than 20
(sequences)
and 4 (size)
• File formatting is
appropriate.
• Information is
presented in a
meaningful form.
• Contains the
information as
requested
• File formatting is not
the most appropriate.
• It does not contain all
information requested
• Few of the DNA
barcodes does not
follow the criteria
• File formatting is
not appropriate.
• It does not contain
all information
requested
• Many of the DNA
barcodes does not
follow the criteria
3
Output (file
with DNA
barcode)
Parameters
bigger than
20
(sequences)
and 4 (size)
• File formatting is
appropriate.
• Information is
presented in a
meaningful form.
• Contains the
information as
requested
• File formatting is not
the most appropriate.
• It does not contain all
information requested
• Few of the DNA
barcodes does not
follow the criteria
• File formatting is
not appropriate.
• It does not contain
all information
requested
• Many of the DNA
barcodes does not
follow the criteria
3
FINAL
SCORE
10