Playlist Duration Analyzer

Project roadmap

1. 01

   Set up the project

   ~1h

   Create a CMake project using C++17. Install Boost and link Boost.Program_options with find_package(Boost REQUIRED COMPONENTS program_options). Add samples/playlist.m3u with at least 20 tracks in the extended format, where each track has a line like #EXTINF:215,Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody followed by the file path, and include a few malformed lines. Done when: the project builds, and running it prints Hello.

2. 02

   Read the command-line options

   ~1h

   Use Boost.Program_options to accept a playlist file (as a positional argument), --top N (how many tracks and artists to show, default 5) and --help. Print the help text when --help is given or the file is missing. Done when: playlist --help prints the options, and a missing file gives a clear message.

3. 03

   Parse the playlist

   ~2h

   Define a Track struct with duration in seconds, artist, title and path. Read the file line by line with std::getline, check that the first line is #EXTM3U, and parse each #EXTINF line: the number after the colon is the duration and the text after the comma is Artist - Title (use Unknown artist when there's no dash). The next non-comment line is the track's path. Warn with the line number about lines that don't fit. Done when: the sample playlist is read into a std::vector<Track>, and bad lines produce warnings.

4. 04

   Calculate the statistics

   ~1.5h

   Write functions that compute the total duration, the average duration, the N longest and N shortest tracks (with std::sort or std::partial_sort) and the number of tracks per artist (with a std::map). Ignore tracks with an unknown duration (-1) in the duration calculations, but count them. Done when: the results for the sample playlist are correct.

5. 05

   Print a readable report

   ~1h

   Write a helper that formats seconds as h:mm:ss or m:ss, and print a report with the number of tracks, the total and average length, the longest and shortest tracks, and the top artists sorted by track count, all aligned with std::setw. Done when: the report is clear and aligned.

6. 06

   Write tests

   ~1.5h

   Add a test executable (registered with CTest) that checks parsing of valid and malformed lines, a title without an artist, the duration formatting (59 s, 61 s, 3,725 s), and the artist counts, using small playlists written as strings in the tests. Done when: ctest passes.

Resources

• ArticleM3U format (Wikipedia)
• DocsBoost.Program_options tutorial
• DocsC++ reference (cppreference)
• DocsCMake tutorial