Thread: assignment help please

i am pretty new to programming and i can't figure out what i'm doing wrong so if someone could please take a look at my code and give me some hints on what i'm doing wrong, that would be awesome!

assignment:

Design a class called Date. The class should store a date in three integers: month, day and year. There should be member functions to print the date in the following forms:
12/25/2012
December 25, 2012
25 December 2012
Demonstrate the class by writing a complete program implementing it. Do not accept values for the day greater than 31 or less than 1. Do not accept values for the month greater than 12 or less than 1.
Modify the Date class you wrote. The class should implement the following exception classes:
InvalidDay-Throw when an invalid day (<1 or >31) is passed to the class.
InvalidMonth-Throw when an invalid month (<1 or >12) is passed to the class.

my code:

Date.h file:

Code:

#pragma once
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#ifndef DATE_H
#define DATE_H
using namespace std;

class Date
{
private:
    int month;
    int day;
    int year;

public:
    Date() {month = 0; day = 0; year = 0;}
    Date(int m, int d, int y) {month = m; day = d; year = y;}

    int getMonth() {return month;}

    void setMonth(int m) {month = m;}

    void InvalidMonth(int m)
    {if (month >= 1 && month <= 12)
            month = m;
    else
    {        cout << "You have entered an invalid number. Please enter "; 
            cout << "a number between 1 and 12: " << endl; 
            cin >> m; }}

    int getMonth1() {return month;}
    
    void setMonth1(int m) 
    {if (m == 1)
    {cout << "January";}
    else if (m == 2)
    {cout << "February";}
    else if (m == 3)
    {cout << "March";}
    else if (m == 4)
    {cout << "April";}
    else if (m == 5)
    {cout << "May";}
    else if (m == 6)
    {cout << "June";}
    else if (m == 7)
    {cout << "July";}
    else if (m == 8)
    {cout << "August";}
    else if (m == 9)
    {cout << "September";}
    else if (m == 10)
    {cout << "October";}
    else if (m == 11)
    {cout << "November";}
    else
    {cout << "December"; }}
    
    int getDay() const {return day;}

    void setDay(int d) {day = d;}

    void InvalidDay(int d)
    {if (day >= 1 && day <= 31)
            day = d;
    else
    {        cout << "You have entered an invalid number. Please enter "; 
            cout << "a number between 1 and 31: " << endl; 
            cin >> d; }}

    int getYear() const {return year;}

    void setYear(int y) 
    {if (year <= 1899 || year >= 2014)
            year = y;
    else
    {        cout << "You have entered an invalid number. Please enter "; 
            cout << "a number between 1900 and 2014: " << endl; 
            cin >> y; }}

};
#endif

Date.cpp file:

#include "Date.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

void main() {
    Date mdy = Date();
    int m;
    int d;
    int y;

    cout << "Please enter the month (1-12): " << endl;
    cin >> mdy.setMonth();
        
    cout << "Please enter the day (1-31): " << endl;
    cin >> mdy.setDay();

    cout << "Please enter the year (1900-2014): " << endl;
    cin >> mdy.setYear();

    cout << mdy.getMonth() << "/" << mdy.getDay() << "/" << &Date::getYear << endl;
    cout << mdy.getMonth1() << " " << mdy.getDay() << ", " << &Date::getYear << endl;
    cout << mdy.getDay() << " " << mdy.getMonth1() << " " << &Date::getYear << endl;
    system("pause");

}

thanks in advance for any and all help!

Why do you believe there is something wrong?

i keep getting compiling errors and when it does work, it shows the date as 0/0/1...also the if-else statements to guard against inputting wrong information never seem to work...

And what compile errors are you getting?

Post the complete error messages exactly as they appear in your development environment.


Jim

a dialog box pops up saying "Unable to start program 'C:\blah\blah\blah\visual studio 2010\Projects\Date\Debug\Date.exe'. The system cannot find the file specified." and then down in the debug window it keeps saying "1>------ Build started: Project: Date, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1> Date.cpp
1>c:\users\elisa\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\date\date\date.cpp(13): error C2660: 'Date::setMonth' : function does not take 0 arguments
1>c:\users\elisa\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\date\date\date.cpp(16): error C2660: 'Date::setDay' : function does not take 0 arguments
1>c:\users\elisa\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\date\date\date.cpp(19): error C2660: 'Date::setYear' : function does not take 0 arguments
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped =========="

c:\users\elisa\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\date\date\date.cpp(13): error C2660: 'Date::setMonth' : function does not take 0 arguments

Let's go from left to right.

c:\users\elisa\documents\visual studio 2010\projects\date\date\date.cpp
The name of the file that the error occurs in.

(13)
The line of the file that the error appears to occur on.

error C2660
Don't really know what this means I guess it's a compiler error code maybe. In any case the error tells us that it is an error rather than a warning (errors cannot be recovered from whereas warnings can [you should fix warnings anyway though!]).

Date::setMonth
An identifier. We don't really know what this means without context yet but we know the problem has something to do with the setMonth function of the Date class.

function does not take 0 arguments
Saying that our Date::setMonth function does not take 0 arguments. We must have given it zero arguments for it to tell us this.

Open Date.cpp to line 13 and look for anything that says "setMonth" and then look at how many arguments it has and how many arguments it should have. cin doesn't really work quite as you're expecting it to.

I'm sorry to come off kind of cold here but you know what they say: Catch a man a bug and feed him for a day. Teach a man to catch a bug and feed him for a lifetime.

Your code is a fairly good start otherwise. One piece of advice I'd give is to try to avoid putting code inside header files. You've got the code for your Date class inside your Date.h file. Inside your Date.h file should just be the class declaration and then you should define the functions in a Date.cpp file.

Originally Posted by DeadPlanet

Catch a man a bug and feed him for a day. Teach a man to catch a bug and feed him for a lifetime.

I know that in many places bugs (e.g. cicadas) are a delicacy, but next time you invite me to dinner I will think twice about those "prawns" you serve

error C2660
Don't really know what this means I guess it's a compiler error code maybe. In any case the error tells us that it is an error rather than a warning (errors cannot be recovered from whereas warnings can [you should fix warnings anyway though!]).

Yes this is the error code the Microsoft compiler produced, you can Google this error and find much more information about what that number means (the first link).

Jim

well, like i said, i'm pretty new to this whole programming thing so i'm more worried with getting the code right and not with the format for now...but i will definitely work on that in the future. i also understand based on the output from the compiler that the error is occurring somewhere with my setMonth, setDay, setYear...i just don't understand what i'm doing wrong with them...

I've seen much worse as far as formatting goes. There are some options for formatting shown on this page. Try to emulate one of those, and I would be surprised if your development environment or editor can't reformat code for you before you post it or submit it somewhere.

Code must be maintainable and readable. Thereby, code formatting is extremely important.

Replacing thereby with its definition we get: "Code must be maintainable and readable. As a result of that, code formatting is extremely important." As a result of what? You were talking about what code must be, there is a lack of action verbs to talk about any sort of process in the previous sentence. Thereby is improperly used here.

I would suggest the word therefore, instead. Replacing it with the definition again: "Code must be maintainable and readable. For that reason, code formatting is extremely important."

I know people hate this sort of correction; they always say communication matters most, don't criticize, blah blah blah, but I am a major stickler for using words that you know mean what you mean.

That and code can easily become impossible to maintain in spite of legibility. Frequently, code needs to be refactored, or it was just poorly designed to begin with. A well-indented God object is a god object still. A well indented program with main() as the only function is still terrible. In the grand scheme of things, if badly indented code is preventing maintenance, indent it then.

Well, had the code been perfectly indented, there was no way of knowing if it was nearly always like that, or if it was indeed tacked on later. So if you really do think that people know what they're doing when their code looks neat, I think you will wind up disappointed.

Plus I don't really mean to disagree or underestimate anything. I'm annoying; I am very good at finding nuances in discussions like these.