Exam Question

**dano9700** · 02-22-2017

I just took my first exam in my programming class. I'm new at this so bear with me. I had trouble with a this question about a program for calculating GPA:
write a program that asks for letter grades (A,B,C,D, or F -- no +/-) from 5 classes, where A = 4 points, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, and F = 0.

What I am having trouble with is using the char data type for the grades, and then assigning integer values to those grades. It was the first exam, so we are only using if-else and switch statements, not while or for or increments or anything like that.

I would greatly appreciate if someone could explain this to me, it's driving me crazy!

**Salem** · 02-22-2017

You mean like
if ( grade == 'A' ) points = 4;

**dano9700** · 02-22-2017

Originally Posted by Salem

You mean like
if ( grade == 'A' ) points = 4;

so does that mean you would have to write if statements for grade1, grade2, grade3, etc, where they == A, B, C, etc...?

**GReaper** · 02-22-2017

Originally Posted by dano9700

so does that mean you would have to write if statements for grade1, grade2, grade3, etc, where they == A, B, C, etc...?

Since you haven't been taught loops, arrays or functions, yes you would have to do that. But the approach to the problem can be different, for example:
1) Lay out the different if statements, one for every possibility
2) Have a single if for each grade, and check the value inside it by chaining the comparison with "&&",
3) Take advantage of the fact that the alphabet is coded sequentially in ASCII, therefore you can check if each grade is between 'A' and 'F' inclusive. I'll let it as an exercise to you how to manipulate the value to obtain what you want. Hint: you can subtract two characters to get the distance between them

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