Having problems getting started on this project.

[Wesus]

I currently have a challenge to complete in 72 hours that is over my head. I have no idea where to start but once the ball got rolling i believe i could figure it out.

The challenge is take a binary file containing information passed between stock traders, decode the stream, and then answer various questions related to the data.

I have never worked directly with reading or decoding binary files before and am very lost. They also want multiple header and source files, but i don't actually see the point in having multiples, i think one would be just fine.

My first thought was to store the information in an array and read it through there through sorting, however i looked into the test binary file i had and it was a massive amount of data, far beyond what i feel comfortable writing with.

I'm not looking for someone to complete the challenge for me, just get me started so that i can figure out the rest on my way.

Thanks in advance!

[Ericool]

and you dont have any structure or class whatsoever about the data? maybe try to simply convert the binary file to text with any online converter then you might have more information about the type of data you are dealing with. if it works it shall help to get the layout. about the h and cpp yes do it with a single cpp for start then modulate it into data structures.

[Wesus]

http://imgur.com/lLtYoSh

This link is the image of what the challenge is. Any help is appreciated.

I figured out that what i originally thought were variables turned out to just be the size of the data that i needed to read for each section, so i have started by creating classes to hold the information in the header file.

IE.

#include <string>

class Header{
	short int marker;
	char msg_type;
	double sequence_id;
	double timestamp;
	short int msg_direction;
	int msg_len;
}

class Entry{
	double Price;
	int qty;
	char instrument[10];
	short int side;
	double client_assigned_id;
	short int time_in_force;
	char trader_tag[3];
	short int firm_id;
	char firm[256];
	char termination_string[8];
}

class Acknowledge{
	int order_id;
	double client_id;
	short int order_status;
	short int reject_code;
	char termination_string[8];
}

class Fill{
	int order_id;
	double fill_price;
	int fill_qty;
	short int no_of_contras;
	short int firm_id;
	char trader_tag[3];
	int qty;
	char termination_string[8];
}

Can anyone confirm that i am on the right path?