Managing User Data: Filtering and Aggregation in C#

Coding Interview Prep for Senior Engineers in C#

Practicing Intermediate Implementation and Data StreamsLesson 2

Lesson 2

Managing User Data: Filtering and Aggregation in C#

Welcome to today's lesson on applying data filtering and aggregation in a real-world scenario using a user management system. We'll start by building a foundational structure that can handle basic user operations. Then, we'll expand it by introducing more advanced functionalities that allow filtering and aggregating user data.

Starter Task Methods

In our starter task, we will implement a class that manages basic operations on a collection of user data, specifically handling adding new users, retrieving user profiles, and updating user profiles.

Here are the starter task methods:

addUser(string userId, int age, string country, bool subscribed) - adds a new user with the specified attributes. Returns true if the user was added successfully and false if a user with the same userId already exists.
getUser(string userId) - returns the user's profile as an object if the user exists; otherwise, returns null.
updateUser(string userId, int? age, string country, bool? subscribed) - updates the user's profile based on non-null parameters. Returns true if the user exists and was updated, false otherwise.

Starter Task Implementation

The C# implementation of our starter task is shown below:

C#
1using System;
2using System.Collections.Generic;
3
4public class UserManager
5{
6    private Dictionary<string, UserProfile> users;
7
8    public UserManager()
9    {
10        users = new Dictionary<string, UserProfile>();
11    }
12
13    public bool addUser(string userId, int age, string country, bool subscribed)
14    {
15        if (users.ContainsKey(userId))
16        {
17            return false;
18        }
19        users[userId] = new UserProfile { Age = age, Country = country, Subscribed = subscribed };
20        return true;
21    }
22
23    public UserProfile getUser(string userId)
24    {
25        if (users.TryGetValue(userId, out var profile))
26        {
27            return profile;
28        }
29        return null;
30    }
31
32    public bool updateUser(string userId, int? age, string country, bool? subscribed)
33    {
34        if (!users.ContainsKey(userId))
35        {
36            return false;
37        }
38        if (age.HasValue)
39        {
40            users[userId].Age = age.Value;
41        }
42        if (country != null)
43        {
44            users[userId].Country = country;
45        }
46        if (subscribed.HasValue)
47        {
48            users[userId].Subscribed = subscribed.Value;
49        }
50        return true;
51    }
52}
53
54public class UserProfile
55{
56    public int Age { get; set; }
57    public string Country { get; set; }
58    public bool Subscribed { get; set; }
59}
60
61class Program
62{
63    static void Main()
64    {
65        var um = new UserManager();
66        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u1", 25, "USA", true));  // true
67        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u2", 30, "Canada", false));  // true
68        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u1", 22, "Mexico", true));  // false
69        Console.WriteLine(um.getUser("u1"));  // UserProfile with specified attributes
70        Console.WriteLine(um.updateUser("u1", 26, null, null));  // true
71        Console.WriteLine(um.updateUser("u3", 19, "UK", false));  // false
72    }
73}

This implementation covers all our starter methods. Let's move forward and introduce more complex functionalities.

New Methods for Data Filtering and Aggregation

With our foundational structure in place, it's time to add functionalities for filtering user data and aggregating statistics.

Here are new methods to implement:

filterUsers(int? minAge, int? maxAge, string country, bool? subscribed):
- Returns the list of user IDs that match the specified criteria. Criteria can be null, meaning that the criterion should not be applied during filtering.
aggregateStats() - returns statistics in the form of an object:
- totalUsers: Total number of users
- averageAge: Average age of all users (rounded down to the nearest integer)
- subscribedRatio: Ratio of subscribed users to total users (as a float with two decimals)

Step 1: Adding filterUsers Method

This method filters users based on the criteria provided. Let's see how it works:

C#
1using System;
2using System.Collections.Generic;
3
4public class UserManager
5{
6    // Existing methods...
7
8    // Method to filter users based on criteria
9    public List<string> filterUsers(int? minAge, int? maxAge, string country, bool? subscribed)
10    {
11        var filteredUsers = new List<string>();
12
13        foreach (var kvp in users)
14        {
15            var userId = kvp.Key;
16            var profile = kvp.Value;
17
18            // Check minimum age criterion
19            if (minAge.HasValue && profile.Age < minAge)
20            {
21                continue;
22            }
23            // Check maximum age criterion
24            if (maxAge.HasValue && profile.Age > maxAge)
25            {
26                continue;
27            }
28            // Check country criterion
29            if (country != null && profile.Country != country)
30            {
31                continue;
32            }
33            // Check subscription status criterion
34            if (subscribed.HasValue && profile.Subscribed != subscribed)
35            {
36                continue;
37            }
38            filteredUsers.Add(userId);
39        }
40        return filteredUsers;
41    }
42}
43
44class Program
45{
46    static void Main()
47    {
48        var um = new UserManager();
49        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u1", 25, "USA", true));  // true
50        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u2", 30, "Canada", false));  // true
51        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u1", 22, "Mexico", true));  // false
52        Console.WriteLine(um.getUser("u1"));  // UserProfile with specified attributes
53        Console.WriteLine(um.updateUser("u1", 26, null, null));  // true
54        Console.WriteLine(um.updateUser("u3", 19, "UK", false));  // false
55
56        Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", um.filterUsers(20, 30, "USA", true)));  // ["u1"]
57    }
58}

The filterUsers method filters users based on minAge, maxAge, country, and subscribed status criteria.
It iterates over the users dictionary and checks each user's profile against the provided criteria.
Users who meet all the criteria are added to the filteredUsers list, which is then returned.
The example usage shows how to add users and filter them based on different criteria.

Step 2: Adding aggregateStats Method

This method aggregates statistics from the user profiles. Let's implement it:

C#
1using System;
2using System.Collections.Generic;
3
4public class UserManager
5{
6    // Existing methods...
7
8    // Method to aggregate statistics from user profiles
9    public Stats aggregateStats()
10    {
11        var totalUsers = users.Count;
12        if (totalUsers == 0)
13        {
14            return new Stats { TotalUsers = 0, AverageAge = 0, SubscribedRatio = 0.00 };
15        }
16
17        // Calculate total age by summing ages of all users
18        var totalAge = 0;
19        var subscribedUsers = 0;
20        foreach (var profile in users.Values)
21        {
22            totalAge += profile.Age;
23            if (profile.Subscribed)
24            {
25                subscribedUsers++;
26            }
27        }
28
29        // Calculate average age (rounded down)
30        var averageAge = totalAge / totalUsers;
31        // Calculate subscribed ratio (to two decimals)
32        var subscribedRatio = Math.Round((double)subscribedUsers / totalUsers, 2);
33
34        return new Stats { TotalUsers = totalUsers, AverageAge = averageAge, SubscribedRatio = subscribedRatio };
35    }
36}
37
38public class Stats
39{
40    public int TotalUsers { get; set; }
41    public int AverageAge { get; set; }
42    public double SubscribedRatio { get; set; }
43}
44
45class Program
46{
47    static void Main()
48    {
49        var um = new UserManager();
50        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u1", 25, "USA", true));  // true
51        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u2", 30, "Canada", false));  // true
52        Console.WriteLine(um.addUser("u1", 22, "Mexico", true));  // false
53        Console.WriteLine(um.getUser("u1"));  // UserProfile with specified attributes
54        Console.WriteLine(um.updateUser("u1", 26, null, null));  // true
55        Console.WriteLine(um.updateUser("u3", 19, "UK", false));  // false
56
57        Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", um.filterUsers(20, 30, "USA", true)));  // ["u1"]
58        Console.WriteLine(um.aggregateStats().TotalUsers);  // 2
59        Console.WriteLine(um.aggregateStats().AverageAge);  // 27
60        Console.WriteLine(um.aggregateStats().SubscribedRatio);  // 0.50
61    }
62}

This aggregateStats method calculates and returns aggregate statistics about the users in the form of a Stats class object. It first determines TotalUsers, the total number of users. If there are no users, it returns an object with zeroed statistics. Otherwise, it calculates TotalAge by summing the ages of all users and counts SubscribedUsers who are subscribed. It then computes AverageAge by performing integer division of TotalAge by TotalUsers and calculates SubscribedRatio by dividing SubscribedUsers by TotalUsers and rounding to two decimals. The resulting statistics object includes TotalUsers, AverageAge, and SubscribedRatio.

Summary

Great job! Today, you've learned how to effectively handle user data by implementing advanced functionalities like filtering and aggregation on top of a basic system. This is a critical skill in real-life software development, where you often need to extend existing systems to meet new requirements.

I encourage you to practice solving similar challenges to solidify your understanding of data filtering and aggregation. Happy coding, and see you in the next lesson!

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