Nathan Arcuri - CISP 301 Project

CISP 301 - Final Project

overview

About the class

CISP 301 focused on programming fundamentals using C++. The class emphasized problem solving, structured logic, and turning ideas into working code.

Goal

Learn how to think like a programmer: break problems into steps, design a solution, then implement it in code.

What I learned

- Control flow: conditionals and loops
- User input handling and basic validation patterns
- Debugging and testing programs
- Planning with pseudocode before writing code

Project

A store checkout program that prompts for item prices until the user enters -1. It then prints a summary including item count, total cost, least expensive item, most expensive item, and average price.

How It Works

logic

Prompt the user for an item price.
If the price is -1, stop collecting items.
Otherwise add the price to the running total and increment the item count.
Track minimum and maximum values as input is collected.
After input ends, calculate the average and print the final summary.

Screenshots

preview

Pseudocode

design

I wrote pseudocode first to plan the flow before implementing it in C++.

Pseudocode


Pseudocode
Declare Count as integer
Declare TotalCost as float
Declare Least as float
Set Least = 1000
Declare Most as float
Set Most = 0
Declare Avg as float

Main
Declare Choice as character
Write "***** Welcome to the ABC store *****"
Write "Do you have items to scan? (Y)es/(N)o?"
Input Choice
If (Choice == 'y' or Choice == 'Y') Then
  Call Input
  Call Output
End If

Input
Declare Cost as float
Set Count = 1
Open "PurchaseData.txt" for output as PurchaseData
Write "Enter the cost for item #" + Count + " or enter -1 to generate final invoice: "
Input Cost
While (Cost != -1)
  Write "Item #" + Count + ": ***** $" + Cost
  TotalCost = TotalCost + Cost
  If (Cost < Least) Then
    Set Least = Cost
  End If
  If (Cost > Most) Then
    Set Most = Cost
  End If
  Count = Count + 1
  Write "Enter the cost for item #" + Count + " or enter -1 to generate final invoice: "
  Input Cost
End While
Set Avg = TotalCost / Count
Write "Your bag contains a total of " + Count + " items."
Write "Grand total for this purchase is: " + TotalCost
Write "The least expensive item in your bag cost: " + Least
Write "The most expensive item in your bag cost: " + Most
Write "The average item cost for this purchase is: " + Avg
Close PurchaseData

Output
Write "***** Welcome to the ABC store *****"
Write "***** Here are the details of your purchase *****"
Open "PurchaseData.txt" for input as PurchaseData
While NOT EOF (PurchaseData)
  Read record
  Write record
End While
Close PurchaseData
Write "***** Thanks for shopping at the ABC store! *****"

C++ Source

implementation

Translated my pseudocode into C++ and here we have the full source code for the console checkout program.

C++ Source


#include<iostream>
#include<fstream>
#include<string>
#include<iomanip>
using namespace std;

fstream PurchaseData;
float TotalCost = 0;
float Least = 1000;
float Most = 0;
float Avg = 0;
int Count = 1;

void Input();
void Output();

int main() {
	char Choice = 'a';
	cout << "***** Welcome to ABC store *****" << endl;
	cout << "Do you have an item to scan? (Y)es/(N)o?" << endl;
	cin >> Choice;
	if (Choice == 'y' || Choice == 'Y') {
		Input();
		Output();
	}
	if (Choice == 'n' || Choice == 'N') {
		cout << "Thanks for shopping at the ABC store!";
	}
	return 0;
}

void Input() {
	float Cost;
	PurchaseData.open("PurchaseData.txt", ios::out);
	cout << "Enter the price for item #" << Count << " or enter -1 to generate final invoice: ";
	cin >> Cost;
	while (Cost != -1) {
		PurchaseData << "Item #" << Count << ": ***** $" << Cost << endl;
		TotalCost = TotalCost + Cost;
		if (Cost < Least) {
			Least = Cost;
		}
		if (Cost > Most) {
			Most = Cost;
		}
		Count = Count + 1;
		cout << "Enter the price for item #" << Count << " or enter -1 to generate final invoice: ";
		cin >> Cost;
	}
	Count = Count - 1;
	Avg = TotalCost / Count;
	PurchaseData << "Your bag contains a total of " << Count << " items." << endl;
	PurchaseData << "Grand total for this purchase: $" << fixed << setprecision(2) << TotalCost << endl;
	PurchaseData << "Least expensive item in your bag: $" << fixed << setprecision(2) << Least << endl;
	PurchaseData << "Most expensive item in your bag: $" << fixed << setprecision(2) << Most << endl;
	PurchaseData << "Average item cost: $" << fixed << setprecision(2) << Avg << endl;
	PurchaseData.close();
}

void Output() {
	cout << endl << "***** Welcome to ABC store *****" << endl;
	cout << "***** Here are the details of your purchase *****" << endl;
	PurchaseData.open("PurchaseData.txt", ios::in);
	string record;
	while (!PurchaseData.eof()) {
		getline(PurchaseData, record);
		cout << record << endl;
	}
	PurchaseData.close();
	cout << "***** Thanks for shopping at the ABC store! *****" << endl;
}

Key Snippets

why it matters

Some important snippets from the source code and how they work.

Sentinel loop

while (Cost != -1) {

while (Cost != -1) is the sentinel condition: it keeps accepting prices until the user enters -1.

Running total

TotalCost = TotalCost + Cost;

TotalCost = TotalCost + Cost; updates the running total on every item.

Track the minimum

if (Cost < Least) Least = Cost;

This line tracks the cheapest item so the program can report the minimum price at the end.

Files

downloads

Store_Checkout.zip

Project source code.

Possible Improvements

next steps

- Add stronger input validation (non-numeric input, negative prices, etc.).
- Support item names and quantities, then print a more receipt-like output.
- Export results to a file (CSV/JSON) instead of console-only output.