LinuxQuestions.org
Share your knowledge at the LQ Wiki.
Home Forums Tutorials Articles Register
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie
User Name
Password
Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question? If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 05-06-2015, 11:31 PM   #1
lckwswws
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2015
Posts: 16

Rep: Reputation: Disabled
Age Calculator, pass by reference problem.


Hi, fellow programmers.
I am programming about an age calculator.
It's simple:
1, get the input date 'today', check if its valid
2, get the input date 'birthday', check if it's valid and before 'today'
3, calculate the difference and output.
This is a assignment due tomorrow and I have written the most of it, just needs some debugging, mostly about pass by reference. I declared date1&date2 at main and I have no idea how to call the value of them if I want to calculate them at another function. I guess I should probably declare them at struct Date, but I am not sure.
I would really appreciate it if you guys could tell me what to do.
Code:
/************************************************************
 *
 * Project 4: How Old Are You Really?
 *
 * Author: xx
 * Date: 6 May 2015
 *
 * This is a program designed to calculates the difference 
 * between two dates, which will be expressed in terms of
 * years, months and days.
 *
 ***********************************************************/

#include <bjarne/std_lib_facilities.h>

struct Date {
    int month;
    int day;
    int year;
// Member functions
Date get_date();
Date get_birth_date();
bool is_valid_date(int year, int month, int day);
bool is_before(Date& date1, Date& date2);
Date calculate_age(Date& date1,Date& date2);
};

// Declaration
Date get_date();
Date get_birth_date();
bool is_valid_date(int year, int month, int day);
bool is_before(Date& date1, Date& date2);
Date calculate_age(Date& date1,Date& date2);

int main()
{
    Date date1 = get_date();
    Date date2 = get_birth_date();
    Date get_date();
    // Check if the date is correct
    if (! is_valid_date(year, month, day))
    error("Date is not valid.");
    // Run how old or not?
    char go_on;
    cout << "Would you like to see how old you are (y/n)?\n";
    cin >> go_on;
    if (go_on=='n'){
    cout << "You are so chicken!";
    return 0;}
    else if (go_on!='y')
    error("Please enter y for yes or n for no.");
    Date get_birth_date();
    // Is birthday valid as well?
    if (! is_valid_date(int year, int month, int day))
    error("Date is not valid.");
    // Is the birthday before 'today'?
    if (!(is_before(Date& date1, Date& date2)))
    error("Your birthday should not be later than today, terminator.");
    // Calculate and give the answer.
    Date calculate_age();
}

Date get_date()
{
    Date date1;
    cout << "Welcome to the age calculator!\n";
    cout << "Please enter today's date (mm/dd/yyyy): ";
    int m;
    int d;
    int y;
    // To ignore the '/' during reading
    char slash;
    cin >> m;
    date1.month = m;
    cin >> slash;
    cin >> d;
    date1.day = d;
    cin >> slash;
    cin >> y;
    date1.year = y;
    cout << "Date entered was "<< date1.month << "/" << date1.day << "/" << date1.year <<"\n";
}

Date get_birth_date()
{
    Date date2;
    cout << "Please enter your birth date (mm/dd/yyyy): "; 
    int m;
    int d;
    int y;
    // To ignore the '/' during reading
    char slash;
    cin >> m;
    date2.month = m;
    cin >> slash;
    cin >> d;
    date2.day = d;
    cin >> slash;
    cin >> y;
    date2.year = y;
    cout << "Your birthday is "<< date2.month << "/" << date2.day << "/" << date2.year <<"\n";
}

// Is date valid?
bool is_vaild_date(int year, int month, int day)
{
    if (day<0)
    return false;
    if (month<1 || month>12)
    return false;
    // Check if the date exists or not considering there are have
    // different days when month varies
    int days_in_month=31;
    switch (month){
    case 2:
    days_in_month=28;
    break;
    case 4: case 6: case 9: case 11:
    days_in_month=30;
    break;
    }
    if (days_in_month<day)
    return false;
    return true;
}

//Date check - is birthday before 'today'?
bool is_before(Date& date1, Date& date2)
{
    if (Date& date1.year<Date& date2.year)
    return false;
    else if (Date& date1.month<Date& date2.month)
    return false;
    else if (Date& date1.day< Date& date2.day)
    return false;
    return true;
}

// Calculation
Date calculate_age(Date& date1,Date& date2)
{
    Date date3;
    date3.day = date1.day - date2.day;
    date3.month = date1.month - date2.month;
    date3.year = date1.year - date2.month;
    if (date3.day<0){
        date3.day = 30 + date3.day;
        date3.month = date3.month - 1;
    }
    if (date3.month<0){
        date3.month = 12 + date3.day;
        date3.year = date3.year - 1;
    }
    cout <<"You are " << date3.year <<" years, "<< date3.month <<" months, and " << date3.day <<" days old.\n";
}
 
Old 05-07-2015, 04:24 AM   #2
wildwizard
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2009
Location: Oz
Distribution: slackware64-14.0
Posts: 875

Rep: Reputation: 282Reputation: 282Reputation: 282
Is this supposed to be a C or C++ program?
 
Old 05-07-2015, 06:00 AM   #3
pan64
LQ Addict
 
Registered: Mar 2012
Location: Hungary
Distribution: debian/ubuntu/suse ...
Posts: 21,830

Rep: Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308Reputation: 7308
you need to switch on compiler warnings (-Wall) and you will see a lot of problems.
For example the functions get_date() and get_birth_date() do not return a Date.
 
Old 05-07-2015, 07:01 AM   #4
rtmistler
Moderator
 
Registered: Mar 2011
Location: USA
Distribution: MINT Debian, Angstrom, SUSE, Ubuntu, Debian
Posts: 9,882
Blog Entries: 13

Rep: Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930Reputation: 4930
As suggested, there are a ton of syntax errors here.
  1. Structure of the program is important and it will help you to determine code block areas where brackets are missing
  2. Using compiler error and warning reports to pre-diagnose will help you immensely here
In my book this is very bad code:
Code:
    if (day<0)
    return false;
    if (month<1 || month>12)
    return false;
  1. No proper spacing
  2. No indentations
  3. No brackets. Yes I realize they are not required for one-line statements, but I feel that they should be used because when you're new you'll make errors. I myself always do use brackets
  4. Similarly the line testing for month is relying on operator precedence and I do not agree with that either, I would instead use parentheses around each test term to ensure that the test matched my intentions
Also, I just "picked" something which happened to be on the screen while I was preparing my response here, I'm sure if I looked extensively at the entire body of code I'd have similar reservations.

In my book it's not fine to code "cutely" because you get into trouble. Especially when you're new.
 
  


Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
[SOLVED] Python - Functions; pass by reference? YellowSnowIsBad Programming 2 12-30-2010 03:36 PM
C++: Pass function by reference unihiekka Programming 5 11-30-2008 01:35 PM
pass by reference in C xeon123 Programming 4 10-22-2007 07:32 PM
How do I pass a C++ object reference to GTK+ callbacks??? paulsm4 Programming 1 12-14-2005 03:32 PM
function, pass by reference question true_atlantis Programming 5 04-02-2004 11:59 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:27 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration