Thread: looping problem

  1. #1
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    looping problem

    I have created two functions one to test if a year is a leap year and another to test for a valid day and month and the code works perfectly. But im having a problem if the date is wrong I want the user to keep entering data until they enter the correct date and if they enter the correct date I want the information stored in the struct. Currently the while loop keeps looping if the date is correct or wrong. The if statement (if (CAPACITY < count)) allows a user to enter one item at a time. Can someone help?

    Code:
    #include<stdio.h>
    #include<ctype.h>
    #include<stdlib.h>
    
    #define  bool int
    #define YES 1
    #define NO 0
    #define CAPACITY 20
    #define SIZE 50
    #define TRUE 1
    #define FALSE 0
    
    
    typedef struct
    {
    	int day;
    	int month;
    	int year;
    }Date;
    
    typedef struct
    {
    	char name[SIZE];
    	Date dob;
    }Student;
    
    void checkDate(Student data[], int count);
    bool isLeapYear(int year);
    
    int main (void)
    {
    	bool  check = FALSE;
    	int i, count = 0;
    	Student database[CAPACITY];
    
    
    			 if (CAPACITY > count)
    				{
    					while(check == FALSE)
    					{
    						printf("Please enter a person's first name, lastname and date of birth\n");
    					scanf("%s %s %d %d %d", database[count].name, &database[count].dob.day, &database[count].dob.month, &database[count].dob.year);
    				
    					
    					checkDate(database, count);
    
    					}/*end while(check == FALSE) */
    					
    					count++;
    				 
    				}/*end if (CAPACITY > count) */
    						else
    						{
    							printf("The database is full\n");
    						}
    				
    	return 0;
    }/*end main() function */
    
    
    /***************************************************************************/
    /*Function to check valid date                                             */
    /***************************************************************************/
    void checkDate(Student data[], int count)
    {
    	int monthLength[13] = {0, 31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31 };
    	bool check = FALSE;	
    
    	/*Add 29 days to Feburary if year is a leap year*/
    	if (isLeapYear(data[count].dob.year))
    	{
    		monthLength[2] = 29;
    	}
    
    	/*If month entered is less then one and greater than 12 print error message*/
    	if (data[count].dob.month < 1 || data[count].dob.month > 12)
    	{
    		printf("Invalid month\n");
    		check = FALSE;
    	}
    	/*If day entered is less then 1 and greater then month number in the array month_length print error message*/
    	else if (data[count].dob.day < 1 || data[count].dob.day > monthLength[data[count].dob.month])
    	{
    		printf("Invalid day\n");
    		check = FALSE;
    	}
    
    }/* end bool checkDate(Student data[], int count) */
    
    /***************************************************************************/
    /*Function to check if a year is a leap year                               */
    /***************************************************************************/
    bool isLeapYear(int year)
    {
    	bool valid;
    
    	if ((year%4) !=0)
    	{
    		valid = NO;
    	}
    	else if ((year%400) == 0)
    	{
    		valid = YES;
    	}
    	else if ((year%100) == 0)
    	{
    		valid = NO;
    	}
    	else
    	{
    		valid = YES;
    	}
    
    	return (valid);
    }/*end bool isLeapYear(int year) */

  2. #2
    Lurking whiteflags's Avatar
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    I have a few comments. don't you have like std_bool for a header or something like that?
    What is the significant difference between the TRUE and FALSE and YES and NO macros?

    Don't use scanf to do all the work. Read in a string with fgets and parse that instead.

    As far as I know, leap years divide by four evenly. Your isLeapYear function does way too much work, and it also returns a void, when you say it should return a bool. No wonder you loop forever, the variable check is never updated.
    Last edited by whiteflags; 05-20-2006 at 05:19 PM.

  3. #3
    The Richness... Richie T's Avatar
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    >>Your isLeapYear function does way too much work

    No its not, read this

    [edit]
    that leap year code was wrong - sorry guys.
    [/edit]

    Your primary problem with that loop is that check variable is
    never updated as citizen said - your checkDate function is going
    to have to return a value. Also, when you fix that issue, you'll
    notice that the program will terminate after entering only 1 value -
    change

    Code:
    if (CAPACITY > count)
    
    /*to*/
    
    while (CAPACITY > count)

    and remove the corresponding else statement:

    Code:
    else
    {
            printf("The database is full\n");
    }
    
    /*to just*/
    
            printf("The database is full\n");
    Last edited by Richie T; 05-21-2006 at 12:59 AM.
    No No's:
    fflush (stdin); gets (); void main ();


    Goodies:
    Example of fgets (); The FAQ, C/C++ Reference


    My Gear:
    OS - Windows XP
    IDE - MS Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition


    ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI

  4. #4
    ... kermit's Avatar
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    Interestingly enough, there is an official comp.lang.c FAQ entry which also might shed some additional light on the matter of leap years with regard to coding such a test in C.

  5. #5
    ATH0 quzah's Avatar
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    Use a lookup table.


    Quzah.
    Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

  6. #6
    ... kermit's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by quzah
    Use a lookup table.


    Quzah.
    For determining leap years, you mean?

  7. #7
    ATH0 quzah's Avatar
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    Definately.


    Quzah.
    Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

  8. #8
    ... kermit's Avatar
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    You know, I was just reading a post on this subject where one of our members implemented the leap year check with a function macro - yet another way of doing it. This sort of question comes up enough every year, it would almost be cool to have a few of these different ideas examined in a separate board FAQ with a smidge of code to demonstrate the various methods of achieving the same end, with some discussion on the pros and cons of each.

  9. #9
    Registered User
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    I have updated the code to bool like you said and return check but the loop still does not break.

    Code:
    bool checkDate(Student data[], int count)
    {
    	int monthLength[13] = {0, 31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31 };
    	bool check = FALSE;	
    
    	/*Add 29 days to Feburary if year is a leap year*/
    	if (isLeapYear(data[count].dob.year))
    	{
    		monthLength[2] = 29;
    	}
    
    	/*If month entered is less then one and greater than 12 print error message*/
    	if (data[count].dob.month < 1 || data[count].dob.month > 12)
    	{
    		printf("Invalid month\n");
    		check = FALSE;
    	}
    	/*If day entered is less then 1 and greater then month number in the array month_length print error message*/
    	else if (data[count].dob.day < 1 || data[count].dob.day > monthLength[data[count].dob.month])
    	{
    		printf("Invalid day\n");
    		check = FALSE;
    	}
             else
            {
                  check = TRUE;
            }
    return check;
    
    }/* end bool checkDate(Student data[], int count) */

  10. #10
    Lurking whiteflags's Avatar
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    In main:
    Code:
    check = checkDate(database, count);

  11. #11
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    Thanks very much citizen you solved my problem and thank you everyone else for your help and advice also

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