Day 4: Java Console Based Student Grade Manager

What I Built Today

Today, I built a console-based Student Grade using Java. This project uses an ArrayList, Hash Map and txt file to track grades. Users can perform the following operations:

• Add a student.

• Add subjects & marks for the respective student.

• Show student details.

• Save to and load from a .txt file.

What I Struggled With

1. Java I/O: I am still not really comfortable working with I/O. I can work just fine with Character Stream Classes like BufferedReader & BufferedWriter, though. I plan on working with Byte Stream classes next.

2. Git & GitHub: Much much better than yesterday, but I still struggle with Commit Messages & GitHub commands. On a brighter note though, I have somewhat developed a system for When & How to commit though.

3. Starting from Scratch: I don’t think the current me can come up with classes, methods etc to work on a project from scratch. I won’t ask for boiler plates from GPT.

How I Challenged Myself

1. Using Official Documentation as a Resource: Again, I referred to the official Oracle Java Documentation. It was not as bad as it before.

2. Keeping a To Do: I have started to keep a note of things I have to research about after each project and tweaks, checkpoints for the project.

The Final Output

1. Project Structure

    student-grade-manager/
     ┣ src/
     ┃ ┣ Student.java
     ┃ ┣ GradeManager.java
     ┃ ┗ StudentApp.java
     ┣ data/
     ┃ ┗ students.txt
     ┗ README.md
   

2. Key Code Snippets

    public void saveToFile(String filePath) {
            try (BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(filePath))) {
                for (Student student : studentList) {
                    writer.write(student.getRollNo() + "," + student.getName());
                    writer.newLine();
                }
                System.out.println(studentList.size() + " records saved.");
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
   

    public void loadFromFile(String filename) {
            try (BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename))) {
                String line;
                while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                    String[] parts = line.split(",");
                    int rollNo = Integer.parseInt(parts[0]);
                    String name = parts[1];
                    studentList.add(new Student(name, rollNo));
                }
                System.out.println("Student Record Imported Successfully!");
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
   

What's Next

1. Personal Reference & Resource Sheet: I plan on becoming a Backend Engineer. So I will start working on having a reference sheet for all sort of things. For instance:

   1. Dev Ops Sheet: For Dev Ops Articles & Resources Link. Like this Git Commit Convention or this excellent article on Git from The Odin Project.

   2. Core Java Notes: Following the 80 20 Rule, keep the most important topics with parts you struggle with.

2. Fundamentals: I will have a fixed time and reference point to revisit the Fundamentals and again create my reference sheet from scratch.

3. 80/20: Since my goal is to become a Backend Engineer, I will start focusing heavily on the backend concepts and start tailoring my projects to that.