Statistics Calculator - Multi-Paradigm Implementation

This project implements a basic statistics calculator in three different programming languages, each demonstrating a different programming paradigm:

• C: Procedural Programming
• OCaml: Functional Programming
• Python: Object-Oriented Programming

Overview

The program calculates three fundamental statistical measures:

• Mean: The average of all integers
• Median: The middle value when sorted
• Mode: The most frequently occurring value(s)

Project Structure

statistics-calculator/
├── statistics_C.c        # C implementation (Procedural)
├── statistics_ocaml.ml   # OCaml implementation (Functional)
├── statistics_py.py      # Python implementation (Object-Oriented)
└── README.md             # This file

Compilation and Execution

C (Procedural)

Compile:

gcc statistics_C.c -o statistics_c

Run:

./statistics_c

OCaml (Functional)

Compile:

ocamlc statistics_ocaml.ml -o statistics_ocaml

Or run directly:

ocaml statistics_ocaml.ml

Python (Object-Oriented)

Run:

python3 statistics_py.py

or

python statistics_py.py

Sample Input/Output

For the input data: [15, 23, 15, 42, 18, 23, 15, 30, 25, 18]

All implementations produce:

• Mean: 22.40
• Median: 20.50
• Mode(s): 15 (appears 3 times)

Implementation Details

C (Procedural)

• Uses arrays for data storage
• Manual memory management with malloc and free
• Separate functions for each calculation
• Simple bubble sort implementation
• Dynamic frequency array allocation based on max value
• Clear, straightforward procedural logic

OCaml (Functional)

• Immutable data structures (lists)
• Higher-order functions (fold_left, map, filter)
• Pattern matching with match expressions
• Recursive functions for frequency counting
• No mutable state - purely functional
• List-based operations throughout

Python (Object-Oriented)

• StatisticsCalculator class encapsulates functionality
• Simple dictionary for frequency counting
• Method-based calculations for each statistic
• Clear encapsulation with class attributes
• Basic, beginner-friendly syntax

Features

• Mean calculation (arithmetic average)
• Median calculation (handles both odd and even list lengths)
• Mode calculation (handles multiple modes)
• Clear comments and documentation
• Identical output across all three languages

Requirements

• C: GCC compiler (or any C compiler)
• OCaml: OCaml compiler (version 4.0+)
• Python: Python 3.6+

Acknowledgments

This project demonstrates the differences between procedural, functional, and object-oriented programming paradigms through a practical statistics calculator example. All implementations use simplified, beginner-friendly code while maintaining the core principles of each paradigm.