Help with first String Lesson - 'Log Levels' C#

Tychi · May 30, 2024, 9:42pm

I don’t know if i’m doing something wrong, however, the instructions seem to be completely different to what the Community Solutions are showing.

For example, these are the tasks for the exercise:

github.com

exercism/csharp/blob/main/exercises/concept/log-levels/.docs/instructions.md

# Instructions

In this exercise you'll be processing log-lines.

Each log line is a string formatted as follows: `"[<LEVEL>]: <MESSAGE>"`.

There are three different log levels:

- `INFO`
- `WARNING`
- `ERROR`

You have three tasks, each of which will take a log line and ask you to do something with it.

## 1. Get message from a log line

Implement the (_static_) `LogLine.Message()` method to return a log line's message:

```csharp
LogLine.Message("[ERROR]: Invalid operation")

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And this is an example of one of the solutions:

I have been learning C# for around a month now and I’m quite familiar with strings, however, the solutions are completely foreign to me and are definitely not for beginners. I feel they are completely different to what the Exercise is asking.

Any help/explanation would be appreciated!

Tychi · May 30, 2024, 9:49pm

Introduction for this exercise can be viewed here:

github.com

exercism/csharp/blob/main/exercises/concept/log-levels/.docs/introduction.md

# Introduction

## Strings

A `string` in C# is an object that represents immutable text as a sequence of Unicode characters (letters, digits, punctuation, etc.). Double quotes are used to define a `string` instance:

```csharp
string fruit = "Apple";
```

Strings are manipulated by calling the string's methods. Once a string has been constructed, its value can never change. Any methods that appear to modify a string will actually return a new string.

Multiple strings can be concatenated (added) together. The simplest way to achieve this is by using the `+` operator.

```csharp
string name = "Jane";
"Hello " + name + "!";
// => "Hello Jane!"
```

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padeso · May 31, 2024, 10:55am

Don’t tell anyone I said so, but I’ve found that for a lot of exercises, the instructions are not very useful. (Occasionaly they are downright misleading!) The requirements are in the tests, and the tests are the sole authority.

mk-mxp · May 31, 2024, 11:52am

@Tychi What is your confusion about? String object and its built-in methods? Or the way the solution you linked uses another notation for the methods to implement? The later is no requirement, there is simply a lot of ways to write the code. Functionally the linked solution solves the exercise, exactly as it is written in the instructions.

You will have to read C# documentation about strings. Have you seen the Help section? There are links to helpful places.

iHiD · May 31, 2024, 12:25pm

This isn’t true for Learning Exercises, of which Log Levels is one. In Learning Exercises all the information you need should be provided in the introduction and/or the hints.

@Tychi Let’s look at spauch's solution for Log Levels in C# on Exercism - what is it that you think the three methods here are doing, and how does that differ from what you feel the task is asking you to do?

padeso · May 31, 2024, 12:39pm

I s

I stand corrected. I wasn’t making that distinction. It might still be true that looking at the failing tests can help clarify their expectations.

iHiD · May 31, 2024, 1:03pm

You can’t actually see the tests for Learning Exercises in the online editor though - they’re specifically hidden so that students solve by following the exercises rather than trying to read code that might be too advanced for them at this stage.

Alpakki · May 31, 2024, 6:09pm

Maybe I can say as a beginner, I concur that the explanation of the tasks are horrible, but that is also the point I guess.

However, just push through first 5 and you start to understand how the system works. Open up a Visual Studio or C# online compiler and play with the code there. Same practices work here as on normal code, test your code often that it works.

Got any issues that you might need help?

iHiD · June 1, 2024, 12:12pm

Our courses are made by the community who work together to improve the content. If something is horrible, maybe you could contribute by opening forum posts for each exercise with suggested improvements?