Book inventory program

Which STL container should I use for a book inventory program?
I was thinking a vector. I plan to implement a query class and menu class. The query class will sort the list based on the given criteria for instance author name. I also want to allow the user to input some bool functions for instance if price is the search criteria the user could enter: >$10.00 and it would list books whose value is greater than $10.00.
I have a book class

Code:

#ifndef BOOK_H
#define BOOK_H

#include <string>

class Book{
    friend ostream &operator<<(ostream&,const Book &);
    
    public:
            Book();
            // constructor title,author,publisher,copy right,isbn,price
            // used for string literals in constructor
            Book(string,string="",string="",int=0,int=0,double=0.0);
                      
            string get_title() const {return title;);
            string get_author() const {return author;};
            string get_publisher() const {return publisher;};
            int get_ISBN() const {return isbn;};
            int get_datecopyright() const {return datecopyright;};
            double get_price() const {return price;};
            
            
            void set_title(string);
            void set_author(string);
            void set_publisher(string);
            void set_ISBN(int);
            void set_datecopyright(int);
            void set_price(double);
                                                      
    private:
             string title;
             string author;
             // parsed from authors full name
             string authorfirstname;
             string authorlastname;
                          
             string publisher;
             int datecopyright;
             int isbn;
             int barcode;
             double price;
             
             //split authors fullname into first, last
             void parse_name(string,string &,string &);
                          
};
#endif

I want to allow for multiple authors any suggestions? This is a complicated project for me so I will be asking many questions as I go.

A vector is ok if you want to use it like an array. I'd use either list or map myself. The semi-colons after the inline functions is not needed. Also I'd use string for ISBN barcode and datecopyrighted

Thanks. How should I implement multiple authors. Should I use a dynamic string array of authors? If I do this I will have to create a copy constructor and overload the ='s operator as well as create a destructor correct. Can anyone suggest how to do this?


I have been giving the container some thought. Basicly I will have a list of books. A map with a key value pair would work if I used the title as the key and the whole book object as the value. Perhaps then I could create query "sets" based on the map. Instead of resorting the list of books based on the query I was thinking of creating new lists or sets or even maps from the query results. What do you think. lol I think I'm jumping ahead.

how about a master container using a map< string, Book> where the title of the book is the string and (that and) all the other information on that book is contained in Book. The map will be sorting by the title by default since the < operator is overloaded for the STL string class. Then you can create different views of that data by sorting on different fields of each Book. Each view can be based on a different type of container, say list or vector or whichever you feel more comfortable with, and then dealt with as you wish. Sounds pretty much like the second half of your post.

Overloading the necessary operators usually isn't that difficult. There are a number of posts on the topic on this board and several reasonable tutorials on the web that cover this topic if you're not familiar with it.

A dynamic container to hold the names of multiple authors is an acceptable technique. You can either create your own or use one from the Standard Template Library.

doh, I have decided to use a map for multiple authors. I want to keep all the containers for the querys the same to make it easier to save to files.

what will be interesting is parsing the query string and calling the appropriate overloaded function.

I want to keep the interface (menu), query class and such seperate so that I can later update the menu to cgi forms.

It seems the menu and the query class must communicate. Normally I would make all the query functions member functions of the Menu class but I think I'll create a query string and option and pass those to the query class. The menu will do nothing more than accept input and display an appropriate menu. Does this sound like a good technique.

Also should I want to save the individual querys to disk so my query class will handle file i/o is this too much for one class.

Thanks for all the input. Things are being planned as I go so I hope I am not boring you. Here is an update of my book class:

Code:

#ifndef BOOK_H
#define BOOK_H

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

class Book{
    friend ostream &operator<<(ostream&,const Book &);
    
    public:
            Book();
            // constructor title,author,publisher,copy right,isbn,price
            // used for string literals in constructor
            Book(string,string="",string="",string="",string="",double=0.0);
            Book(string,std::map<string,string,string>,string="",string="",double=0.0);          
            
            string get_title() const {return title}
            string get_authors() const {return &authors;}
            string get_publisher() const {return publisher;}
            string get_ISBN() const {return isbn;}
            string get_datecopyright() const {return datecopyright;}
            double get_price() const {return price;};
            
            
            void set_title(string);
            void set_authors(string);
            void set_authors(std::vector<string>);
            void set_publisher(string);
            void set_ISBN(int);
            void set_datecopyright(int);
            void set_price(double);
                                                      
    private:
             string title;
             // last,first,middle name
             string std::map<string,string,string> authors;
             
                                 
             string publisher;
             string datecopyright;
             string isbn;
             int barcode;
             double price;
             
             //split authors fullname into first, last
             void parse_name(string);
                          
};
#endif

Classes can be as complicated as you like. Generally all the information should relate together somehow, but if you can do that, then go for it.

to use the map the syntax would be

map<key, value> mapObjectName;

where key is the name of the class you are using for the key and value is the name of the class you are using for the value associated witht the key. you can't do this:

map<string, string, string> mapObjectName;

I wuld suggest a different container to hold authors. I still think a vector or list of authors sounds the most reasonable. If you want to sort by the authors last name, then you could create an Author class that has three strings, one each for the first, last, and middle names of a given author. Then you could have a list or vector of Authors in the book class and sort by any one of those three fields.

I updated my book class and created a author class. Here is the code

Code:

#ifndef BOOK_H
#define BOOK_H

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include "author.h"

class Book{
    friend ostream &operator<<(ostream&,const Book &);
    friend istream & operator (istream & ,Book &);
    
    public:
            Book();
            // constructor title,author,publisher,copy right,isbn,price
            // used for string literals in constructor
            Book(string,string="",string="",string="",string="",double=0.0);
            
            string get_title() const {return title}
            string get_authors() const {return &authors;}
            string get_publisher() const {return publisher;}
            string get_ISBN() const {return isbn;}
            string get_datecopyright() const {return datecopyright;}
            double get_price() const {return price;};
            
            void edit_book(Book &);
            
            void set_title(string);
            void set_authors(string);
            void set_publisher(string);
            void set_ISBN(int);
            void set_datecopyright(int);
            void set_price(double);
                                                      
    private:
             string title;
             // last,first,middle name
             string std::vector<Author> authors;
                                             
             string publisher;
             string datecopyright;
             string isbn;
             int barcode;
             double price;
             
};
#endif

And the author class

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

class Author{
    public:
        Author();
        //constructor that accepts full name as input
        Author(string);
        string get_lastname() const;
        string get_firstname() const;
        string get_middlename() const;
        
        void parse_name(string);
        void set_lastname();
        void set_firstname();
        void set_middlename();

    private:
        string last_name;
        string first_name;
        string middle_name;
};
#endif

I have a question about overloading the istream operator>>
to input a book should I access the private members directly ie:

Code:

istream &operator>>(istream & input, Book & tBook){
      input >> tbook.title;
      .
      . 
}

or should I uset the set functions

Code:

istream &operator>>(istream & input,Book & tBook){
      string ttitle,tauthors...;
      input >> ttitle;
      tBook.set_title(ttitle);
      .
      .
}

your most recent post has code for the Book.h twice but no Authur.h, not it matters that much, but just so you know.

Code:

in the following line drop the word string.

string std::vector<Author> authors;

you'll need to rework the following code, too

string get_authors() const {return &authors;}

because return the address of authors is not the same thing as returning a string. You will want to think about how you are trying to do here as there are several approachs.

I have taken a step back before implementing authors.
What I am going to do is input a string containing the author(s)
first middle last, first middle last and parse the string seperating it into a vector<string> authors.

but looking at my code I need to slow down and am having some very basic problems with my book class here is my revised code before implementing author(s).

Code:

#ifndef BOOK_H
#define BOOK_H

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#include <string>
#include <vector>


class Book{
    friend ostream &operator<<(ostream &,const Book &);
    friend istream &operator>>(istream &,const Book &);
    
    public:
            Book();
            // constructor title,author,publisher,copy right,isbn,price
            // used for string literals in constructor
            Book(string,string="",string="",string="",string="",double=0.0);
            
            string get_title() const {return title;}
            string get_publisher() const {return publisher;}
            string get_ISBN() const {return ISBN;}
            string get_datecopyright() const {return datecopyright;}
            double get_price() const {return price;};
            
            void edit_book(Book &);
            
            void set_title(string);
            void set_authors(string);
            void set_publisher(string);
            void set_ISBN(string);
            void set_datecopyright(string);
            void set_price(double);
                                                      
    private:
             string title;
             // last,first,middle name
             
             string publisher;
             string datecopyright;
             string ISBN;
             int barcode;
             double price;
             
};
#endif

i am getting ambigous errors with my istream operator can anyone help

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

#include "book.h"

Book::Book(){
    set_title("");
    set_authors("");
    set_publisher("");
    set_ISBN("");
    set_datecopyright("");
    set_price(0.0);
}

// constructor title,author,publisher,ISBN,copy right,price
Book::Book(string ttitle,string tauthors,string tpublisher,string tISBN,string tcopyright,double tprice){
    set_title(ttitle);
    set_authors(tauthors);
    set_publisher(tpublisher);
    set_ISBN(tISBN);
    set_datecopyright(tcopyright);
    set_price(tprice);
}

void Book::set_title(string ttitle){
    title=ttitle;
}

void Book::set_authors(string tauthors){
}

void Book::set_publisher(string tpublisher){
    publisher=tpublisher;
}

void Book::set_ISBN(string tISBN){
    ISBN=tISBN;
}

void Book::set_datecopyright(string tcopyright){
    datecopyright=tcopyright;
}

void Book::set_price(double tprice){
    price=tprice;
}

void edit_book(Book & tBook){
    cout << tBook;
    cin >> tBook;
    cout << "Revised Input:\n";
    cout << tBook;
}

    

istream & operator>>(istream &input,Book &tBook){
    string ttitle,tauthors,tpublisher,tISBN,tcopyright;
    double tprice;
    cout << "Enter Title (required):";
    input >> ttitle;
    tBook.set_title(ttitle);
    cout << "Enter Author(s)(in the form first middle(optional) last,next author):";           
    input >> tauthors;
    tBook.set_authors(tauthors);
    cout << "Enter Publisher:";
    input >> tpublisher;
    tBook.set_publisher(tpublisher);
    cout << "Enter ISBN:";
    input >> tISBN;
    tBook.set_ISBN(tISBN);
    cout << "Enter copy right year:";
    input >> tcopyright;
    tBook.set_datecopyright(tcopyright);
    cout << "Enter price of book:";
    input >> tprice;
    tBook.set_price(tprice);
    return input;
}   

ostream &operator<<(ostream & output,Book & tBook){
    output << "Title:"<<tBook.get_title()<<endl;
    output << "Publsher:"<<tBook.get_publisher()<<endl;
    output << "ISBN:"<<tBook.get_ISBN()<<endl;
    output << "Copy Right Date:"<<tBook.get_datecopyright()<<endl;
    output << "Price:"<<tBook.get_price()<<endl;
    return output;
}

here is a simple test main

Code:

include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "book.h"


using std::cin;


int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  Book Entry();
  cin >> Entry;
  Entry.edit_book(Entry);
  //display main menu
  //get user input display appropriat menu
  //if query build queryset
   
  system("PAUSE");	
  return 0;
}

Ooops I edited the post to include the author class instead of the book class again sorry.

BTW thanks for the help ignore this post as I started from scratch and solved the problem with the istream/ostream operator though I don't know what I did wrong originally. I'll post further questions in a new thread.