CourseUtilities.java

package edu.ucsb.cs156.courses.utilities;

/** static utility methods for dealing with courses */
public class CourseUtilities {

  // Utility class; this allows jacoco to be satisified that constructors are covered.
  private CourseUtilities() {}

  /**
   * Given a subject area and course number, return a course id that is formatted similarly to the
   * precise way that course numbers are formatted in UCSB's GOLD system.
   *
   * <p>That format has the subject area left justified in an 8 character field, followed by the
   * course number right justified in a 3 character field, followed by the suffix (if any) left
   * justified in a 2 character field.
   *
   * <p>However, we use this function to query rtora's CSV files with grade data, at
   * https://github.com/rtora/UCSB_Grades/ in which this course id is trimmed, such that there are
   * never ending spaces.
   *
   * <p>Therefore, we intentionally also trim the result course id in this function to properly
   * query the CSV files. For example, CMPSC 130A would typically be written:
   *
   * <p>"CMPSC 130A "
   *
   * <p>but we return "CMPSC 130A" to query the CSV file.
   *
   * @param subjectArea subject area, such as CMPSC
   * @param courseNumber course number, such as 130A
   * @return formatted course number
   */
  public static String makeFormattedCourseId(String subjectArea, String courseNumber) {
    String[] nums = courseNumber.split("[a-zA-Z]+");
    String[] suffs = courseNumber.split("[0-9]+");
    String result = "";
    if (suffs.length < 2) { // no suffix
      result =
          String.format("%-8s", subjectArea) // 'CMPSC '
              + String.format("%3s", nums[0]) // ' 8'
      ;
    } else {
      result =
          String.format("%-8s", subjectArea) // 'CMPSC '
              + String.format("%3s", nums[0]) // ' 8'
              + String.format("%-2s", suffs[1]) // 'A '
      ;
    }
    return result.trim();
  }
}