C++ Beginner Help

I'd like to start by letting everyone know that I've been programming (or trying, at least) for only a couple weeks, therefore I know very little about vocabulary so please provide a definition for programming-specific words. I am currently reading the Beginner Tutorial guide on this website, also a few C++ books.

Alright, I only made it to the second section, If Statements, and I'm trying to make a quiz-like program. So here is my code:

Code:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    char A, B, C, D;
    
    cout<<"What year was WWII thought to be started? ";
    cout<<"A. 1931";
    cout<<"B. 1945";
    cout<<"C. 1939";
    cout<<"D. 1967";
    
    char>> A;
    char>> B;
    char>> C;
    char>> D;
    cin.ignore();
    
    if (int = A){
             cout<<"1931 is incorrect. C was the right answer.";
             }
    if (int = B){
             cout<<"1945 is incorrect. C was the right answer.";
             }
    if (int = C){
             cout<<"1939 is correct. Good job!";
             }
    if (int = D){
             cout<<"1967 is incorrect. C was the right answer.";
             }
    cin.get();
}

Can somebody tell me where I went wrong? Now I'm not asking anybody to do this for me, but just give me a few hints on where I messed up. For the record, I'm using Dev-C++ 4.9.9.2

You're mixing chars and ints, and for the input you only need one char option:

Code:

char input;
    
    cout<<"What year was WWII thought to be started? ";
    cout<<"A. 1931";
    cout<<"B. 1945";
    cout<<"C. 1939";
    cout<<"D. 1967";
    
    cin >> input;
    
    if (input == 'A' || input == 'a'){

Also, make sure that you use == when comparing two things. = on its own assigns the value on the right to the variable on the left. With the options you should use else if statements:

Code:

if (condition 1)
{
}
else
if (condition 2)
{
}
else
if (condition 3)
{
}
else
if (condition 4)
{
}
else
//code for none of the above...

And use either << endl or "\n" to move to the next line in your output.

For this part:

Code:

if (input == 'A' || input == 'a'){

Would I need to do this for every char I want to do? If so, it would look like this right?

Code:

if (input == 'A' || input == 'a'){
//code
else if (input == 'B' || input == 'b'){
//code
else if (input == 'C' || input == 'c'){
//code
else if (input == 'D' || input == 'd'){
//code

I got it I believe. One more question, how do you make these: "||"?

Yes that's right. When working with specific characters you enclose them in ' '. Later on there are ways to convert input to lower or upper case, but for now checking for either does the job.

|| means OR as far as C++ is concerned. As for where | lives on your keyboard....that depends on where you are. Here in the UK the symbol is on the backslash key next to 'Z'. It looks like one of these : that's been squished on the keyboard rather than |.

I found it |. Thanks for the help!