A student records system

The problem

Build a program that adds, lists, searches and sorts student records, and saves them in a file so that they are still there next time.

Requirements

• Each student is a struct with an ID, a name and a CGPA
• A menu offers add, list, search by ID, sort by CGPA, save and quit
• The records are held in an array that grows with realloc
• Saving and loading use a text file, and a missing file is handled calmly
• Bad input does not crash the program
• All memory is freed before the program ends

Technologies

• C
• Structs
• malloc and realloc
• File input and output

Step by step

1. Define the struct, and write one function that prints a student.
2. Write an add function that grows the array when it is full.
3. Write the list and search functions, and test them.
4. Write the sort, comparing by CGPA and then by name.
5. Write the save function, then the load function, and check for NULL.
6. Write the menu loop in main, calling one function for each choice.
7. Run the program, restart it and confirm that the records came back.
8. Compile with -Wall -Wextra, and fix every warning.

Expected result

A complete console program whose data survives between runs, and which handles bad input and missing files.

How it is evaluated

• Records survive a restart
• The program runs without memory errors under a sanitizer
• Every fopen and malloc is checked
• The code compiles with no warnings
• main contains only the menu and calls to functions

Ways to improve it

• Add editing and deleting of records
• Store records in a binary file with fwrite
• Add a report of the class average and the grade counts