Question

Use a two-dimensional array to solve the following problem. A company has four salespeople $(1\text{ to }4)$ who sell five different products $(1\text{ to }5).$ Once a day, each salesperson passes in a slip for each different type of product sold. Each slip contains the following: a. The salesperson number b. The product number c. The total dollar value of that product sold that day Thus, each salesperson passes in between 0 and 5 sales slips per day. Assume that the information from all of the slips for last month is available. Write a program that will read all this information for last month's sales and summarize the total sales by salesperson by product. All totals should be stored in the two-dimensional array sales. After processing all the information for last month, print the results in tabular format with each of the columns representing a particular salesperson and each of the rows representing a particular product. Cross total each row to get the total sales of each product for last month; cross total each column to get the total sales by salesperson for last month. Your tabular printout should include these cross totals to the right of the totaled rows and to the bottom of the totaled columns.

Short answer

Use a 2D array to aggregate and print sales data by products and salespeople, including totals for rows and columns.

Step-by-step solution

Understand the Problem

We need to create a 2D array to track sales data for 4 salespeople across 5 products. Each entry in the 2D array will represent the total sales of that product by that salesperson.

Initialize the 2D Array

Create a 2D array with dimensions 5 (products) by 4 (salespeople) where each element is initialized to zero. This will be used to store the cumulative sales data.

Loop Through Sales Slips

For each sales slip, extract the salesperson number, product number, and sales amount. Update the corresponding entry in the 2D array by adding the sales amount to it. This simulates accumulating the sales data.

Calculate Row Totals

For each product (each row in the array), calculate the total sales by summing the sales amounts across all salespeople. Store this row total to the right of that row.

Calculate Column Totals

For each salesperson (each column in the array), calculate the total sales by summing sales amounts across all products. Store this column total at the bottom of that column.

Print Tabular Results

Create a table with products as rows and salespeople as columns. Include the row totals to the right and column totals at the bottom. Format the table for clarity.

Key concepts

Sales Data Tracking

Sales data tracking is essential for businesses to monitor and evaluate their performance. In this scenario, we use a two-dimensional array to record and analyze the sales transactions of four salespeople, each selling five different products.

This method offers a compact and efficient way to capture and store data. Each entry in the array represents the total dollar value of a particular product sold by a specific salesperson. This tracking allows us to identify the sales trends of each product and the performance of each salesperson, serving as a valuable tool for management and strategy planning.

Tabular Data Representation

Representing data in a tabular format is an effective way to organize and interpret information. In this problem, the two-dimensional array's structure provides a natural fit for tabular representation.

With products listed in rows and salespeople in columns, the table clearly conveys each salesperson's performance per product. This format also allows for easy cross-referencing and calculations, such as row and column totals.

• Rows represent different products
• Columns correspond to salespeople
• Totals at the end of rows/columns provide summed-up figures

By organizing data in this manner, we can efficiently analyze sales results and derive actionable insights.

Array Initialization

Array initialization is a critical step in programming, especially when dealing with data storage and manipulation. For this sales tracking task, we initialize a two-dimensional array with five rows and four columns, each representing products and salespeople respectively.

This initialization is crucial because it sets each element to zero at the beginning, ensuring that the program processes no accumulated data from previous operations.

• Declare an array with dimensions matching the dataset
• Initialize all elements to zero
• Prepare the array to store future data inputs

Proper initialization ensures that data is accurately accumulated and reduces potential errors in summation or analysis.

Data Summation

Summing data is vital for reviewing the overall performance within the sales data. We perform two types of summation in this exercise: row totals and column totals.

• Row totals: Summing across all columns in a row to obtain the total sales per product.
• Column totals: Summing across all rows in a column to get the total sales per salesperson.

These calculations are necessary to assess individual product performance as well as each salesperson's success. This data summation delivers comprehensive insights and helps identify strong and weak areas in sales strategies or product popularity.

C++ Programming Concepts

C++ programming provides tools and concepts crucial for implementing this sales data tracking exercise. Two-dimensional arrays, loops for input processing and data handling, and output formatting are essential C++ concepts used here.

• Arrays: C++ supports multidimensional arrays that can be easily declared and initialized.
• Loops: We utilize loops to efficiently process and update each sales entry.
• Data formatting: We handle output formatting to present the data in an easy-to-read tabular form.

Understanding these concepts helps us not only solve the exercise but also enhances overall programming skills, particularly when working with data sets and performing systematic computations.