1st time w/ classes: conversion and identifier error (plz Help!)

Decided to take out the exception throwing...we didn't have to have that anyway. Still getting a couple errors that I'm not understanding though. Says that local function definitions are illegal...where do I put them then? Sorry to sound so dumb. Still not very experienced in this. Any help would be appreciated.

Code:

#ifndef H_Dog
#define H_Dog

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class Dog								//Dog class
{
public:
	static int licenseFee;
			//static variable for license fee
	char dName;
	char dBreed;
	int dAge;
	char answer;
	void Dog::setDogInfo(char dName, char dBreed, int dAge);
			//Function prototype to set dog's name, age, and breed
			//Postcondition: dogName=dName  dogBreed=dBreed  dogAge=dAge
	void Dog::printDogInfo() const;
			//Function to print "Your dog's name is dogName. The dog's breed
			//is dogBreed. Age is dogAge years. The license fee is $12.25."

private:
	char dogName;
	char dogBreed;
	int dogAge;
};


void Dog::setDogInfo(char dName, char dBreed, int dAge)
					 //Function to enter dog's name, breed, and age
{
			cout << "Please enter your dog's name and press enter: ";
			cin >> dName;
			cout << endl;

			cout << "Please enter your dog's breed and press enter: ";
			cin >> dBreed;
			cout << endl;

			cout << "Please enter your dog's age in years and press enter: ";
			cin >> dAge;
			cout << endl;

			cout << "Your dog's name is " << dName << ". The dog's breed is "
				<< dBreed << ". Age is " << dAge << " years. " << endl;

			dogName = dName;
			dogBreed = dBreed;
			dogAge = dAge;
}


void Dog::printDogInfo() const		//Function to print dog's name, age, breed, license fee
{
	cout << "Your dog's name is " << dogName << ". The dog's breed is "
		<< dogBreed << ". Age is " << dogAge << " years."
		<< "The license fee is $" << licenseFee << "." << endl;
}

#endif

main.cpp:

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include "Dog.h"

using namespace std;

	void displayMenu();					//Function prototype to display main menu

int main()
{
	bool done = false;					//variable for menu choice selection verification
	int choice = 0;						//variable to hold menu choice
	double Dog::licenseFee = 12.25;		//static variable declaration for license fee
	string str = "Please enter again.";	//string variable to hold error message
	char Dog::dName = "Rex";
	char Dog::dBreed = "Beagle";
	int Dog::dAge = 5;

	displayMenu();

	do
	{
		try
		{
			cin >> choice;
			if (choice < 1 || choice > 3)
				throw str;
			done = true;
		}
		catch (string messageStr)
		{
			cout << messageStr << endl;
			cin.clear();
			cin.ignore(100, '\n');
		}
	}
	while (!done);

	if (choice == 1)
	{
		Dog::setDogInfo();
	}
	else
		if (choice == 2)
		{
			Dog::printDogInfo();
		}
		else
			if (choice == 3)
			{
				system("cls");
			}
system ("pause");

return 0;
}

void displayMenu()					//Function to display main menu
{
	cout << "Welcome to the Dog Program" << endl;
	cout << "Please enter the number of your selection" << endl;
	cout << "1) Enter dog information" << endl;
	cout << "2) Print dog information" << endl;
	cout << "3) Exit the program" << endl;
}

first of all, answer is a char and you're comparing it to a char*
it should be

Code:

if (answer == 'N')

with single quotes

I'm looking through the rest of your code right now

edit1:
i see lots of exceptions in your code... Are you by any chance a java programmer?
exceptions should be avoided in most cases in C++ as they're slow (there's probably other reasons but this is the only one i know of)
in your case:
1. there isn't anything worth using exceptions for
2. you're using exceptions like gotos

the following code

Code:

		try
		{
			cin >> choice;
			if (choice < 1 || choice > 3)
				throw str;
			done = true;
		}
		catch (string messageStr)
		{
			cout << messageStr << endl;
			cin.clear();
			cin.ignore(100, '\n');
		}

can be reduced to

Code:

			cin >> choice;
			if (!(choice < 1 || choice > 3))
			        done = true;
                        else
		       {
		              	cout << messageStr << endl;
		              	cin.clear();
			        cin.ignore(100, '\n');
		       }

EDIT2:

redundant code in Dog::setDogInfo()
why not store it directly in dogName, dogBreed, etc?

Code:

			dogName = dName;
			dogBreed = dBreed;
			dogAge = dAge;
			allDone = true;

I know I can't initialize a variable when I declare it in the class. How do I go about this then?

You mean like change the value of dogName, dogBreed and dogAge from outside the class?
use getters and setters

Code:

void SetDogName(char c) { dogName = c; }
char GetDogName() { return dogName; }

btw, dogName is a char. chars only store a single character and i doubt anyone would name their dog with a single character

Sorry...didn't know you replied until after I changed the code...just trying to make sense of it all...I'm still getting these errors:

error C2655: 'Dog::licenseFee' : definition or redeclaration illegal in current scope
error C2371: 'licenseFee' : redefinition; different basic types
error C2761: 'char Dog::dName' : member function redeclaration not allowed

"i see lots of exceptions in your code... Are you by any chance a java programmer?
exceptions should be avoided in most cases in C++ as they're slow (there's probably other reasons but this is the only one i know of)"

No, I just didn't know any other way to prompt the user to re-enter, lol. I wasn't aware they were slow, but thanks for letting me know. My C++ class is not the best in the world, lol, and the book leaves something to be desired. I took out all of the exceptions and edited my first post. Still getting some errors I'm unsure about. I can't figure out how to declare a variable for a class and then initialize it without getting an error.

Code:

void Dog::setDogInfo(char dName, char dBreed, int dAge)

you're reusing the same names as your class members

I've never used static members before so I wouldn't know if something else could be causing that error but what I do know for sure is this:

Code:

double Dog::licenseFee = 12.25;

you're declaring Dog::licenseFee here

Within class declarations member functions are declared like this:

Code:

//void Dog::setDogInfo(char dName, char dBreed, int dAge);
void setDogInfo(char dName, char dBreed, int dAge);

To use the class, you'll need to declare a Dog instance:

Code:

Dog myDog;
myDog.dName = "Rex";
myDog.printDogInfo();

There are numerous other errors.

For example you can't represent a string as a char (one character) - use std::string.

The public members dName, answer etc have no purpose in the class, and the setDogInfo function could be rewritten as

Code:

//void Dog::setDogInfo(char dName, char dBreed, int dAge)
void Dog::setDogInfo() //parameters not needed
					 //Function to enter dog's name, breed, and age
{
			cout << "Please enter your dog's name and press enter: ";
			cin >> dogName;
			cout << endl;

			cout << "Please enter your dog's breed and press enter: ";
			cin >> dogBreed;
			cout << endl;

			cout << "Please enter your dog's age in years and press enter: ";
			cin >> dogAge;
			cout << endl;

			cout << "Your dog's name is " << dogName << ". The dog's breed is "
				<< dogBreed << ". Age is " << dogAge << " years. " << endl;

			//dogName = dName;
			//dogBreed = dBreed;
			//dogAge = dAge;
}