README.md

ArgumentParser

For this homework, you will create a class to parse command-line arguments and store them in a map. For example, consider the following command-line arguments:

"-max", "false", "-min", "0", "-min", "-10", "hello", "-debug", "-f", "output.txt", "-verbose"

In this case, -max -min -debug -f and -verbose are all flags since they start with a - dash followed by at least 1 letter character. The values are false 0 hello and output.txt since they do not start with a - and letter character.

Note that -10 is not a flag because the - dash is followed by a digit character. Instead it should be interpreted as a value representing a negative number.

Not all flags have values, not all values have associated flags, and values will be overwritten if there are repeated flags. For example, flag -max has value false. Flag -min has initial value 0, but the value get replaced by the second occurrence of the -min flag with the value -10 instead. The value hello has no associated flag and is ignored. The flags -debug and -verbose have no associated value, but are still stored. The resulting map should look similar to:

{
  "-max": "false",
  "-min": "-10",
  "-debug": null,
  "-f": "output.txt",
  "-verbose": null
}

Use an efficient data structure to store the key/value pairs. The key/value pairs does not need to be stored in insertion order or sorted order.

Avoid looping more often than necessary. For example, numFlags() should not require a loop.

Hints

Below are some hints that may help with this homework assignment:

• Many methods may be implemented with one line of code if you are familiar with the methods in HashMap or TreeMap.

• The parse(...) method is easier if you use a traditional for loop instead of an enhanced for loop.

• The String.codePointAt(int) and Character.isLetter(int) methods work with more languages than using String.charAt(int) and Character.isLetter(char) methods. However, it is not necessary to pass the tests.

These hints are optional. There may be multiple approaches to solving this homework.

Requirements

See the Javadoc and TODO comments in the template code in the src/main/java directory for additional details. You must pass the tests provided in the src/test/java directory. Do not modify any of the files in the src/test directory.

See the Homework Guides for additional details on homework requirements and submission.