Assignment 1: Stems and Branches

Introduction

This assignment allows you to become familiar with Visual Studio Community 2017. (Details on using

Visual Studio will be covered in Tutorial 1.) You will write a simple program on the topic of Stems-and-

Branches (干支; Cantonese romanization gon1-ji1).

Stems-and-Branches, a.k.a. sexagenary cycle, is a cycle of sixty terms used for indicating dates, years, etc. in ancient China. Each term in the cycle consists of two Chinese characters: the first is called a Heavenly Stem (天干; Cantonese romanization tin1-gon1) and the second is called an Earthly Branch (地支; Cantonese romanization dei6-ji1). Heavenly Stem can have 10 possibilities, while Earthly Branch can have 12 possibilities. Tables 1 and 2 show the characters for the 10 stems and 12 branches respectively.

Table 1: The Ten Heavenly Stems
Stem
1


2


3

4

5

6


7



8

9

10
Number

























































Chinese
甲


乙


丙

丁


戊
己

庚


辛


壬


癸
Character

























































Cantonese
gaap3

yut3

bing2

ding1

mou6
gei2

gang1

san1

yam4

gwai3
Romanization



























Table 2: The Twelve Earthly Branches













Branch
1


2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11


12
Number


























































Chinese
子
丑

寅

卯

辰
巳
午


未

申

酉

戌

亥
Character






















































Cantonese


chau

yan

maau
san



ng

mei

san

yau

seut

hoi
Romanizatio
ji2








ji6
















2

4

5

4



5

6

1

5


1


6
n




























































The first term in the sexagenary cycle is called 甲子 which combines the first stem and the first branch. The second term in the cycle is called 乙丑 which combines the second stem and the second branch. This pattern continues as 甲子, 乙丑, 丙寅, 丁卯, 戊辰, 己巳, 庚午, 辛未, 壬申, 癸酉, 甲戌, 乙亥, 丙子, 丁丑, …, until it concludes at the 60th term 癸亥. After that, the cycle begins again at 甲子. In this assignment, for the convenience of those unfamiliar with Chinese characters, we use the notation “S - B ” to denote a term in the sexagenary cycle, where and are the stem number and branch number respectively. For example, S8-B12 means 辛亥.

The sexagenary cycle can be used for indicating years. For example, year 2018 is called a 戊戌 year (S5-B11). The next year 2019 is 己亥 (S6-B12), and so on. Similarly, the cycle can indicate dates. For example, 31/8/2018 is called a 乙未 day (S2-B8). The next day 1/9/2018 is called a 丙申 day (S3-B9), and so on. (Obviously, using this method of numbering years and dates is not unique, because the cycle contains 60 terms only. But this method plays an important role in Chinese fortune telling.) In 
CSCI1120 Introduction to Computing Using C++, Fall 2018-19
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

this assignment, you will write a program to convert a Western date into sexagenary dates. The conversion method is stated below.

Converting from Western Years to Cyclic Years
Given a Western year    , its stem number    and branch number    can be computed as follows:
= (   − 3) mod 10 (However, if    = 0, then set    = 10 instead.)

= (   − 3) mod 12 (However, if    = 0, then set    = 12 instead.)
Note that mod is the modulo operation. For example, 7 mod 3 = 1.

Example: year 2013
= (2013 − 3) mod 10 = 2010 mod 10 = 0. As    = 0, we set    = 10 instead.
= (2013 − 3) mod 12 = 2010 mod 12 = 6.

Thus, year 2013 is S10-B6 (癸巳).

Converting from Western Dates to Cyclic Dates
Given a Western date    /    / , its stem number    and branch number    can be computed as follows:  

Program Specification

The program should obtain three integers as user input, which represents a date. You do not have to validate the inputs. (That is, we assume that all inputs are always valid dates.) Then you apply the above methods to compute the cyclic year and cyclic dates of the input, and print out the result.


Program Output

The following shows some sample output of the program. The blue text is user input and the other text is the program output. You can try the provided sample program for other input. Your program output should be exactly the same as the sample program (i.e., same text, same symbols, same letter case, same number of spaces, etc.). Otherwise, it will be considered as wrong, even if you have computed the correct result.

Enter a date (D M Y): 4 9 2018↵

Year:    S5-B11

Month: 9

Day:    S6-B12

Enter a date (D M Y): 14 2 2013↵

Year:    S10-B6

Month: 2

Day:    S8-B12

Enter a date (D M Y): 25 12 2046↵

Year:    S3-B3

Month: 12

Day:    S5-B7


Submission and Marking

    • Your program file name should be stembranch.cpp. Submit the file in Blackboard (https://blackboard.cuhk.edu.hk/).

    • Insert your name, student ID, and e-mail as comments at the beginning of your source file.

    • You can submit your assignment multiple times. Only the latest submission counts.

    • Your program should be free of compilation errors and warnings.

    • Your program should include suitable comments as documentation.

    • Plagiarism is strictly monitored and heavily punished if proven. Lending your work to others is subjected to the same penalty as the copier.