Computer Science Canada

Making a distance converter
Author:  Andr3iB [ Sat Sep 15, 2007 1:38 am ]
Post subject:  Making a distance converter
Hi to all, I need help with making this converter (I'm fairly new to turing). We have to convert from miles, to yards to feet .....
This is what I have so far

    var mile, yard, feet, inch, meter, km, cm : real
    var combo : real
    var ans, ans2 : string

    put "What do you want to convert from? (miles, yards, feet, inches, kilometers, meters or centimeter)"
    get ans
    put "Into what? (miles, yards, feet, inches, kilometers, meters or centimeter)"
    get ans2
    put ""
    put "Please enter the number of ", ans, " you want to convert into ", ans2, "!"
    get ....


I don't know what to get (the last line), because I don't know ans or ans2.. so how can I calculate then?

Any help is greatly appreciated. THNX
Author:  Tony [ Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:21 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a distance converter
But you do know what ans and ans2 are. They are the user answers fetched earlier in the program!

Instead of get mile or get feet, you should be doing a more general

get distance_value

it will still be the same 1 or 2 or 42.5. You will know the type of the measurement from the response in ans.
Author:  Andr3iB [ Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a distance converter
Thanks Tony for the help, but I still don't know how to manipulate distance_value for the conversion.

For Example ---- i want to convert from miles to feet (1mile=5280feet)
so ans = miles
ans2 = feet

distance_value = 2 (i want to convert 2 miles to feet)


How do i manipulate distance_value to give me 10560 feet - not knowing that the user typed in miles (because, as you said, i do know ans, but how do i use and and distance_value to give me the proper ans2). Do I just have to make a whole list of if statements?

Sorry if my question is confusing.. I too am a bit confused Neutral
Author:  Nick [ Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:44 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a distance converter
yea just use if statements such as
Turing:
if ans ="miles" and ans2 = "feet" then
put "your distance is: ",distance_value*(conversion)
elsif etc...
end if

there might be an easier way but i cant think of one atm
Author:  Andr3iB [ Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:47 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a distance converter
Well thnx a whole lot for all the help, really appreciate it. I guess I will use if statements after all. Thnx Very Happy
Author:  Tony [ Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:08 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Making a distance converter
Well you have 7 different distance units

mile, yard, feet, inch, meter, km, cm

That makes for 42 different conversions. If writing out 42 if statements seems kind of excessive - it is. So there must be an easier way. There is Wink

Always convert to a common unit first. Lets say cm.

So if we are converting from miles to feet. We first have 7 if-elseif statements to convert from miles to cm. We then have 7 similarly structures if-elseif statements to convert from cm to feet.

That's 14 statements total, down from 42. Not bad.
Author:  Andr3iB [ Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a distance converter
Thanks a lot Tony, that's really helpful to know. Thanks to all for all the help. Really appreciate it.

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