Exercise - Add dog search - Training

8 minutes

In this exercise, you add the feature "Display all dogs with a specified characteristic" (menu item #2) to the application. The exercise uses the solution project from the previous exercise that added suggestedDonation data.

Note

This is a "minimal viable product" (MVP) feature. A MVP feature is intended to be a simple working prototype of a feature that enables quick and easy delivery. A MVP is not usually a final product, it is intended to help you work through an idea, test it, and gather further requirements.

The search feature prompts the user for a single search input term (or phrase) that describes a characteristic desired in a pet to adopt. Then, the descriptions for adoptable dogs are searched for exact matches of the user input. Information about the dogs that match are output to the console. If no matches are identified, then a message "None of our dogs are a match" is displayed along with the search term used.

The tasks that you complete during this exercise are:

Gather user input for the pet characteristic search term
Loop through the animals array and identify "dogs"
For each dog, search the pet description for a term match
Display the dogs that have a term match

In Visual Studio Code, open the completed Project.cs file from the previous exercise that added the donation information to get started.

Gather user input for the pet characteristic search

Review the menu switch statement following comment #5 in the Project.cs code. You discover the code that displays the "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" message.
Delete the code Console.WriteLine("\nUNDER CONSTRUCTION - please check back next month to see progress."); between case "2": and the Console.WriteLine("Press the Enter key to continue."); statement so the code matches the following sample:
```
case "2":
    // Display all dogs with a specified characteristic
    Console.WriteLine("Press the Enter key to continue.");
    readResult = Console.ReadLine();
    break; 
```
Add code to gather user input for the dogCharacteristic string. Gather the input requires a while loop that continues to prompt the user until they submit an input. The loop instructs the user to "Enter one desired dog characteristic to search for". Entering an empty string repeats the loop. Place the following code following case "2: just before the break; statement as shown:
```
case "2":
    // Display all dogs with a specified characteristic
    string dogCharacteristic = "";

    while (dogCharacteristic == "")
    {
        // have the user enter physical characteristics to search for
        Console.WriteLine($"\nEnter one desired dog characteristics to search for");
        readResult = Console.ReadLine();
        if (readResult != null)
        {
            dogCharacteristic = readResult.ToLower().Trim();
        }
    } 
    Console.WriteLine("Press the Enter key to continue.");
    readResult = Console.ReadLine();
    break;
```
Review the added code. The main features of the case "2": code include:
- The code starts with a string declaration string dogCharacteristic = ""; that is scoped to case "2":. You won't be able to utilize dogCharacteristic anywhere outside of the case statement code.
- After Console.ReadLine() gathers user input as dogCharacteristic it ensures value isn't null, and sets the string to lowercase and trims the surrounding spaces.
- If dogCharacteristic has a null value, then the loop repeats gathering input.
Save your code, then compile by using dotnet build in the TERMINAL (you can refer to the steps in the previous exercise) and fix any errors.
Run the code by using dotnet run.
Test the search term input functionality of the app by entering 2 to select Menu Option "2" searching.
Press "Enter" without entering data at the "Enter one desired dog characteristic to search for" prompt. The program should return to the "Enter one desired dog characteristics to search for" prompt.
The program should return to the prompt until characters are entered.
At the prompt test search term entry "golden". The program should return to the menu without error.
At the menu, type "Exit" to exit the program.

Identify which animals are dogs

Now you add a feature to search using the user input dogCharacteristic within the dog descriptions following the previous code under case "2". But first you need to identify the dogs.

At the end of case "2" code, just before the code Console.WriteLine("\n\rPress the Enter key to continue");, which is before the break;, add the following code:

// #6 loop through the ourAnimals array to search for matching animals
for (int i = 0; i < maxPets; i++)
{
    if (ourAnimals[i, 1].Contains("dog"))
    {
        // #7 Search combined descriptions and report results
    }
}

Take a minute to examine the loop added to the end of the case "2": code.

The code filters for "dogs" using ourAnimals[i,1], where animalSpecies data is stored. If animalSpecies is storing "dog" then the code moves into the brackets of the if statement where the search of the combined descriptions can occur.
Compile your code by using dotnet build and fix any errors.

Search the combined description information of dogs

The previous code ensures that you search only dog descriptions. Now you need to search the dog descriptions and output information about matches.

While thinking about the descriptions, you realize there are two descriptions animalPhysicalDescription and animalPersonalityDescription;. After consulting, the team decides that a combined description is appropriate for the search.

Note

Some developers refer to the addition of requirements during development as "scope creep." Although combining the descriptions is not a lot of work, it still adds time and complexity. For this reason, you should let the team know that added requirements will likely delay the completion of the project.

Combine the dog descriptions to make it easier to search

You need to declare a string, dogDescription to hold the combined data that originated from animalPhysicalDescription and animalPersonalityDescription;.

Declare dogDescription just before comment #6 with the following code:
```
string dogDescription = "";
```
Now you can use the dogDescription string declared you need to populate it with the two descriptions for each animal
Using the dogDescription variable populate it with animalPhysicalDescription and animalPersonalityDescription;.

Add the following code after comment # 7:
```
dogDescription = ourAnimals[i, 4] + "\n" + ourAnimals[i, 5];
```

Search the combined descriptions of dogs and display

Now you add the search for dogCharacteristic in the combined data of dogDescription. You need to add an if statement to determine if you have a match for the search for each dog.

Update the code following comment #7, after dogDescription = ourAnimals[i, 4] + "\n" + ourAnimals[i, 5]; with the code:
```
if (dogDescription.Contains(dogCharacteristic))
{
    Console.WriteLine($"\nOur dog {ourAnimals[i, 3]} is a match!");
    Console.WriteLine(dogDescription);
}
```
Examine the previous code example, when the if statement finds a match for dogCharacteristic in dogDescription a message about the dog match and description is output to the console. You still need to account for the "no matches found" message.
Add the code noMatchesDog = true:

Add the following code just before comment #6:
```
bool noMatchesDog = true;
```
Now you can track when no matches are found with this tracking variable. When the default is set to true that means "it's true that no dogs match for the search." Now, when a dog is found you can "flip" the noMatchesDog from true to false
In the brackets of the if (dogDescription.Contains(dogCharacteristic)) statement, add the following code:
```
noMatchesDog = false;
```
Review that your code within the brackets of if (dogDescription.Contains(dogCharacteristic)) was entered properly.

You should have the following code:
```
    if (dogDescription.Contains(dogCharacteristic))
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"\nOur dog {ourAnimals[i, 3]} is a match!");
        Console.WriteLine(dogDescription);

        noMatchesDog = false;
    }
```
Finally, you need to create code that decides if the "no matches found" message should be written to the console.
At the end of case "2" code, just before the code Console.WriteLine("\n\rPress the Enter key to continue");, which is before the break;, add the following code:
```
if (noMatchesDog)
{
    Console.WriteLine("None of our dogs are a match found for: " + dogCharacteristic);
}
```
That's the the final code for this exercise!
Save your changes.

Check your work

At the TERMINAL command prompt, to build your project code, enter the following command: dotnet build.

If there are errors you need read the error messages, trouble shoot and make fixes or review the solution code in the "Final" folder.
Run your project code in the terminal with dotnet run.

When the code runs two menu items are displayed.
At the menu, enter "2" and "Enter" to test the dog search repeatedly.
```
 - Enter nothing as input to test the null entry behavior
 - Enter "scuba" as input to test the "match not found"
 - Enter "golden" to get two matches
 - Enter "medium" to get one match
```
If everything worked as expected in both steps, congratulations! Otherwise, look for the errors by checking the exercise steps. If needed, start over or check the Final folder code for solution code to this exercise.
Type exit, at the app menu, to end the program and then close the terminal panel.

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Exercise - Add dog search