pointers

>> author = a;
You cannot assign C style strings. You have to allocate memory for author and then use strcpy to copy the string.

You can't assign a pointer to another pointer. You can assign a pointer to a reference or a value but then you wouldn't be able to pass in a pointer. At least I think. Also, in your destructor you're trying to delete author. You can only use keyword delete when you allocate memory with keyword new.

Code:

---

char * author;
author = new char[x];  //allocating x amount of chars
delete [] author;

---

I don't think you should assign author to the reference of "a" though. When your program goes through the destructors you'll most likely get a segmentation fault from trying to access inaccessible memory.

You can keep what you're doing now and just do this:

Code:

---

int length = strlen(a);
author = new char[length + 1];
strcpy(author, a);
author[length] = '\0'; //null character, you actually don't need this, more of an FYI

---

Code:

---

        if (toLowerChoice == 'b')
        {
                pttt = new ...
        }
        else if (toLowerChoice == 'r')
        {
                pttt = new ...
        }

        // What if neither of the conditions are met...? What will you be returning?
        return pttt; // could be anything

        // you could try initializing 'pttt' like so,
        Holding * pttt = 0;

        // or you could try...

        switch (toLowerChoice)
        {
        case 'r':
                {
                        // ...
                        break;
                }
        case 'b':
                {
                        // ...
                        break;
                }
        default: // if the user refuses to cooperate
                {
                        pttt = NULL; // pttt = 0;
                }
        };

        return pttt;

        // you could also, place within a do{}while until conditions are met
        do
        {
                cout << "\nEnter B for book or R for recording: " << endl;
                cin >> holdingChoice;

                switch(toLowerChoice)
                {
                        // ...
                }

        }
        while (pttt == NULL);

        return pttt;

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> You can't assign a pointer to another pointer.

Not true.

> You cannot assign C style strings

Oh, but you can.

Nevertheless, it's bad practice, especially in C++. Use string objects.