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:

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#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

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main.cpp:

Code:

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#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;
}

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

Code:

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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;

---

Quote:

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

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

Code:

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

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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:

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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:

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double Dog::licenseFee = 12.25;

---

you're declaring Dog::licenseFee here

Within class declarations member functions are declared like this:

Code:

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//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:

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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:

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//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;
}

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