Please read the assignment carefully. If you need help, don't hesitate to contact your E-TUTOR, but send the email EARLY, NOT just before the deadline. You can also see the TA or the Professor during their office hours. Even though this is the first assignment, it uses concepts from all of Chapters 2 through 5. However, you do not need to read all of these chapters yet. Read the parts you need, especially Sections 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 for the if statement and Section 4.4 for the for loop.

Decimal numbers from 0 through 255 can be represented in the binary number system using 8 bits. Here are some examples:

This assignment asks you to write a Java class called Binary. The decimal number will be stored in the variable numVal. Another variable binStr will store the binary string corresponding to numVal. The class Binary will have two methods that you must write. Here are the details.

• the variable binStr (type String) is where the string of bits corresponding to the binary representation of the number is stored by one of the methods (see below).
  
  
• The main method should check to make sure the decimal value is between 0 and 255. If it is not, it should print an informative error message (using System.out.println) and store the number 0 instead.
  
  
• the method getBin (public static String getBin(int num )) should take the value that is passed to it, generate the corresponding binary string and returns it. YOU MUST WRITE THIS METHOD BY YOURSELF. YOU MAY NOT CALL A METHOD FROM THE JAVA LIBRARY TO DO THIS JOB. The method should consist of a single for loop. This loop generates the 8 bits of the bit string, one at a time. There are two possible ways to do this. The easiest is to generate the bits from LEFT to RIGHT, by successively subtracting powers of 2 from numVal. Take the number 25 for example. If we subtract the biggest relevant power of 2, the number 128, from this, we get a negative answer so we know the first bit must be 0. The first power of 2 which is smaller than 25 is 16, so that tells us that the bit corresponding to that power (that's actually the fourth bit from the left) is 1. Once 16 is taken away from 25, we have 9 left. The next power of 2 is 8, which is less than 9, so the next bit (the fifth from the left) is also 1. Now we only have 1 left, so the sixth and seventh bits are 0, and the final eights bit is 1. You should not type all the powers of 2 into the program. You should start with 128, and then repeatedly divide this by 2 in the loop. Don't use any of the numbers in the table above for an example. Choose another number, say between 70 and 250 for your example. Don't use the same example as a classmate, if you can avoid it. (Of course, some people may choose the same example by accident -that's OK.)
  
  There's an alternative way to code this method, also using a for loop but generating the bits from RIGHT to LEFT, using repeated division. See p. 11 of the text. See the Powerpoint presentation at the last link for the homework http://cs.nyu.edu/courses/spring02/V22.0102-002/binary.ppt. Look at the slides up to the the ASCII table.
  
  As each bit is generated, either left to right or right to left, you have to concatenate it to the current value of binStr. Start with the empty string.
  
  
• the method checkBin (public static boolean checkBin(String binStr, int numVal)) should take the binary string in binStr and check to see if it correctly represents the number in numVal, essentially reversing the operation of getBin. This is easy, again using a loop: you need to extract the first bit of the string binStr, multiply it by 128, then add this to the second bit multiplied by 64, and so on. Again, don't type all the powers of 2 into the program: just start with 128 and repeatedly divide it by 2. Another variation is to first multiply the first bit by 2, then add the second bit and multiply all that by 2, and then add the third bit, and so on. Again, make sure you use a for loop and document it with COMMENTS. The method checkBin should return a Boolean value, indicating whether the result matches the number in numVal. To extract each bit, you need to use the String method charAt (see p. 265) to get the relevant char value and you can then test this against the char values '0' and '1' to complete the job.

After your program runs properly, alter it slightly so that it can read the data from the command line. If you have a mac, the terminal program gives you the command line. If you have a PC, see http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm (the link is on the web page under the assignment) for how to include the java and javac programs in your path. However, the easiest way is to place your program in the Bin directory of the jdk directory. Hand this version into your etutor. If you can't get this version to work, 0.2 points will be deducted from a possible high of 4.0 points.. You should hand in two versions of the assignment. One that hard-wires the input and one that uses the command line.

Please get started on the assignment immediately, and contact your etutor as soon as possible with any questions. Don't expect a response the day before the due date. Late homeworks will be accepted up to 7 days late, but they will be penalized 25%.

Remember, you may submit a revised version to your etutor within 7 days of receiving comments on your first version, in order to improve your grade.