Inventory Problem

CPE/CSC 102 Project

1.0 Overview

You have been hired by the Better Than Average Equipment Company to help them computerize their inventory control procedures. You are to write an interactive program to perform inquiries and reports about their inventory. They desire a menu-driven application with the ability to load an inventory data file, list or total the inventory by department, search for an item, and display reports sorted by different fields.

2.0 Input Requirements

2.1 Data File Format

The data file to be processed contains some arbitrary number of records, each of which describes an item in the inventory. Each record is comprised of six fields, in this order: Catalog Code, Department, Quantity on hand, Item description, Unit Price, and Reorder date. The layout of each record in the data file is shown below:

Field Name Value Columns

Catalog Code 6 alphanumeric characters 3 - 8

Department Code One single letter (A - E) 11

Quantity on Hand an integer (0 - 9999) 13 - 16

Item Description A string of up to 20 characters with no embedded blanks 18 - 37

Unit Price An integer representing the price in cents 38 - 43

Reorder Date A string representing the reorder date coded as dd-mmm-yyyy 46 - 56

View a sample dataset.

Field Name	Value	Columns
Catalog Code	6 alphanumeric characters	3 - 8
Department Code	One single letter (A - E)	11
Quantity on Hand	an integer (0 - 9999)	13 - 16
Item Description	A string of up to 20 characters with no embedded blanks	18 - 37
Unit Price	An integer representing the price in cents	38 - 43
Reorder Date	A string representing the reorder date coded as dd-mmm-yyyy	46 - 56

2.2 Menu Choice

This will be an integer from 1 - 5 specifying an action to be taken. (See 3.1 below.)

2.3 Department Code

This will be a single capital letter in the range A - E, or the character * .

2.4 Search Value

This will be the catalog code that a user wants to search for.

3.0 Output Requirements

The main menu that controls the program contains a title, states the name of the currrent data file, and shows a list of action options and a prompt as shown below:

                          Better Than Average Equipment
                             Inventory Report Program

                                  MENU OPTIONS
                   1)  Load the inventory from a file.
                   2)  Print a list of inventory items.
                   3)  Print total value of merchandise.
                   4)  Search for a particular item.
                   5)  Exit

                   Enter menu choice (1-5):

3.2 The Prompt for Department

       Enter Department code (A,B,C,D,E, or * = all) :

3.3 The Inventory List

The list option displays the items in a nicely formatted columnar display. The display should appear in this order: Catalog code, department, part name, quantity, price, reorder date. The output layout should appear as shown below:
Catalog Code  Dept   Part Name          Quantity   Unit Price   Reorder date
  CSO842        A    AUTOMOBILE              5        69.06       3-Oct-2008
  KJX730        A    BICYCLE                10       184.10      31-Dec-2007
  URM841        A    BOAT                    3        78.24      20-Oct-2007
  KWH629        A    SKATEBOARD             10       122.40       4-May-2009
  PPC630        A    VAN                    10       185.10      27-Jul-2010

4.0 Functional Requirements

4.1 Display Action Options Menu

Here your program is to display a menu of actions which the program can perform as depicted in 3.1

4.2 Load the Inventory Data

4.2.1 Display a prompt asking the user for the name of the inventory data file.

4.2.2 Assume the file is correctly formatted and read the data.

4.2.3 Display the file name and the number of records read from the file.
 File EQUIP07.DAT loaded.  41 records found.
 

4.3 Print Inventory Data

4.3.1 Display a prompt asking the user whether s/he wants all items listed, or just those from a specific department.

4.3.2 If the user enters A - E for a department code, list just the items from that department, ordered by part name.

4.3.3 If the user enters *, list all the items in the inventory, ordered by part name.

4.3.4 Any other input will display the main menu again.

4.4 Print Total Value of Merchandise

4.4.1 - 4.4.4 Again, user must specify which department (or ALL departments) as in 4.3. If the user enters an invalid department code, a quantity on hand of zero should be displayed.

4.4.5 Compute total value by multiplying unit price by quantity for each item and summing them.

4.4.6 Display the total.

4.5 Search for Specific Item

4.5.1 Display a prompt asking the user for the catalog code to search for.

4.5.2 Display the complete record for the target item, using the same display format as in 4.3.

4.5.4 If the search fails, display an informative message.

4.8 Exit the Program

Terminate the application.

5.0 Error Handling Requirements

5.1 It is possible that your Load operation will fail. This will happen if the program cannot find the inventory data file specified or if the access permissions on the file are incorrectly set. So have your program print a helpful error message that explains the problems and suggests possible corrective action. Then display the main menu.

5.2 If the user's menu choice is not a valid option, display a prompt

       Please enter an option between 1 and 5: 
and allow her/him to reenter her/his selection.