Question

A parking garage charges a \(\$ 2.00\) minimum fee to park for up to three hours. The garage charges an additional \(\$ 0.50\) per hour for each hour or part thereof in excess of three hours. The maximum charge for any given 24 -hour period is \(\$ 10.00 .\) Assume that no car parks for longer than 24 hours at a time. Write an application that calculates and displays the parking charges for each customer who parked in the garage yesterday. You should enter the hours parked for each customer. The program should display the charge for the current customer and should calculate and display the running total of yesterday's receipts. The program should use the method calculateCharges to determine the charge for each customer.

Short answer

Calculate charges per customer using defined logic and sum to get total.

Step-by-step solution

Understand the Problem

The task is to calculate parking fees based on the number of hours parked. A garage has a fee structure where there is a base cost for the first 3 hours and an incremental cost for additional hours. We need to calculate the fee for each customer and sum the total receipts for the day.

Define the Fee Structure

The first 3 hours have a fixed fee of $2.00. For any time exceeding 3 hours, an additional charge of $0.50 is applied per hour. The charge should not exceed $10.00 for any 24-hour period.

Setup the Function: CalculateCharges

Write a function called `calculateCharges` that takes the number of hours parked as input. This function will output the parking fee based on the time parked.

Implement the Base Fee Calculation

In `calculateCharges`, check if the number of hours parked is 3 or less. If so, return the fixed fee of $2.00.

Calculate Extra Charges

If the hours parked exceed 3, calculate the extra charges by subtracting 3 from the hours parked and multiplying the result by $0.50. Add this to the base fee of $2.00.

Apply the Maximum Charge Cap

Ensure that if the calculated charge (base fee + extra charges) exceed $10.00, the charge is capped at $10.00.

Calculate Total Receipts

Initialize a total receipt variable to store the total fees collected. For each customer, call `calculateCharges`, update their charge, and add this to the total receipt.

Output Charges and Total

Print each customer's charge and the running total of receipts after processing all customers.

Key concepts

Parking Fee Calculation

Calculating parking fees can be tricky if not broken down into simple steps. The goal is to figure out how much to charge each customer based on the number of hours parked in the garage while keeping to the fee structure. Firstly, there's a base charge of $2.00 for parking a car for up to three hours. Beyond the three-hour mark, each additional hour costs an extra $0.50. However, this fee is capped at a maximum of $10.00 for any car parked for up to 24 hours.

When computing the fee, you need to know how many hours the car has been parked. If it's less than or equal to three hours, simply charge the base fee of $2.00. If the duration exceeds three hours, calculate the additional fee for the extra hours and add it to the base fee. Remember, the final charge should never exceed $10.00, regardless of the total hours counted.

Method Implementation

In Java programming, a method is a block of code designed to perform a particular task. For our parking fee calculation, we'll be implementing a method called `calculateCharges`. This method is crucial as it handles the computation based on input, which is the number of hours parked.

To set up this method, begin by defining its parameters and return type. The method will accept the number of hours as an input argument and return the calculated fee as a decimal (float or double). Inside the method, apply the logic based on the explained fee structure. This includes determining if the number of hours is greater than three to compute the extra charges. Furthermore, ensure the maximum fee cap of $10.00 is respected before returning the final fee value.

Conditional Logic

Conditional logic is a fundamental concept in programming used to make decisions in code. In the context of our parking fee calculation, conditional statements help decide how much to charge a customer based on the hours parked.

We use if-else statements in our `calculateCharges` method. Start by checking if the number of hours is less than or equal to three hours. If true, assign the base fee of $2.00. Otherwise, if the number of hours exceeds three, you calculate the extra fee for the additional hours and sum it with the base fee. After calculating, another conditional check ensures the fee doesn't surpass $10.00. If the calculated amount is more than $10.00, set the fee to $10.00 instead.

Total Receipts Calculation

The total receipts calculation involves summing up all the individual parking charges over a day. Once you have implemented and tested your `calculateCharges` method, it’s time to tally up the day's receipts.

Begin by initializing a variable to hold the total receipts, starting at zero. For each customer, call the `calculateCharges` method, providing the hours parked. Add each returned charge to your total receipts variable. This approach ensures you have an accurate running total as you process each customer.

Finally, after processing all customers, the total receipts variable will give you the sum of all parking fees collected that day. This enables the garage owners to see their daily earnings easily by running the program.