Class within a Class

[toomanystars]

Hi guys,

Need a little help, here's the code...

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <conio.h>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

class Employee
{
public:
	Employee::Employee();
	void input();

private:
	Date emp_year;
	Date emp_month;
	Date emp_day;
	enum occupation {accountant, laborer, plumber, cook, director, clerk};
	int emp_number;
	double emp_salary;
};

class Date
{
public:

private:
	int year;
	int month;
	int day;
	
};


int main()
{
	Employee e1, e2, e3;
	char choice;
	do
	{
		cout<<"Enter the first employee.\n";
		e1.input();


		cout<<"Do you wish to enter three more employees? (y/n)\n";
		cin>>choice;
	}while(choice=='y');
	cout<<"Have a nice day\n";
	exit(1);



	_getch();
	return 0;
}
Employee::Employee(){}
void Employee::input()
{
	char symbol;
	cout<<"Enter the employee number: ";
	cin>>emp_number;
	while(emp_number)
	{
		cout<<"employee number can't be less than zero, enter again: ";
		cin>>emp_number;
	}
	cout<<"Enter the employee's start date in the format 'mm/dd/yyyy': ";
	cin>>emp_year;//problem here!

	
}

I need to be able to access the "Date" variables, through the "Employee" class, but have met with little success. Every which way I try, I get an error. Can someone please show me the proper format, without using pointers or anything fancy?

Thanks,

Mike

[Moschops]

Here is the code with most of the syntax errors and the non-standard sections removed:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

class Date
{
public:

private:
	int year;
	int month;
	int day;
	
};


class Employee
{
public:
	Employee();
	void input();

private:
	Date emp_year;
	Date emp_month;
	Date emp_day;
	enum occupation {accountant, laborer, plumber, cook, director, clerk};
	int emp_number;
	double emp_salary;
};




int main()
{
	Employee e1, e2, e3;
	char choice;
	do
	{
		cout<<"Enter the first employee.\n";
		e1.input();


		cout<<"Do you wish to enter three more employees? (y/n)\n";
		cin>>choice;
	}while(choice=='y');
	cout<<"Have a nice day\n";
	exit(1);



	return 0;
}
Employee::Employee(){}
void Employee::input()
{
	char symbol;
	cout<<"Enter the employee number: ";
	cin>>emp_number;
	while(emp_number)
	{
		cout<<"employee number can't be less than zero, enter again: ";
		cin>>emp_number;
	}
	cout<<"Enter the employee's start date in the format 'mm/dd/yyyy': ";
	cin>>emp_year;//problem here!

	
}

The problem now is that you're trying to gather input from cin and place that input into an object of type Date.
cin>>emp_year;
he compiler has no idea what it means to gather input and store it into an object of type Date. It knows how to do this for an int, or a double, of a float, or a char, or any other built-in variable, but how is it supposed to know what to do with a Date object?

Your choices are to either write the operator >> for the Date object yourself, or to only use it to input data into types the compiler already knows how to deal with. For example:

cin>>emp_year.year; would gather data and put it into the year variable inside a Date object. As year is of type int, the compiler already knows how to do this.


While I am here, this looks insane:

	Date emp_year;
	Date emp_month;
	Date emp_day;

So each Employee has THREE Date objects. One is named emp_year, one is named emp_month, and one is named emp_day? It looks to me like you actually only want one Date object, and you want to store inside that single Date object a year, a month and a day. Making three separate Date objects and giving them these names suggests that you don't actually understand what classes are for.

[toomanystars]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply, and you are right, in your condescension, I don't know what I am doing, hence, I am in the beginner forum asking for help.

[Moschops]

It's what you'll get round here. Most of us don't actually care enough to be condescending; it comes across like that because we just don't have the time to be anything other than brusque.

You've defined a Date class. Clearly you want to store something in here. Some data. A year, a month, a day. When you create an instance of this class, for example like this:

Date aDateObject;

you create one complete object of type Date. What's in a Date object? Let's take a look:

class Date
{
public:

private:
	int year;
	int month;
	int day;
};

So the Date object we made contains three integers; one named year, one named month and one named day. If you only want to store one date, you need only one Date object.

[toomanystars]

I know I need a date object, but I need at access it through the "Employee" class and I am not sure what the proper syntax is to do so. I have tried many different things, but have come up with nothing.

For example, in void Employee::input() I need to access the "Date" class. My experience with C++ tells me I should declare the type, than the variable, and then the dot operator to access it. so...

I figure it should be something like this inside "Employee" class

Date emp_year;

Then, inside the function "Employee::input()" in order to access date variable the code should be like this.

emp_year.year;

But it does not work, and I don't know why.

Thanks,

Mike

[cire]

Then, inside the function "Employee::input()" in order to access date variable the code should be like this.

emp_year.year;

What you actually did: cin>>emp_year;//problem here!

If you had done: cin >> emp_year.year ; you would've had a different experience.

I would suggest (aside from using only one date in the employee class as Moschops suggests) renaming the date to something more descriptive like, perhaps:

employmentDate

[toomanystars]

I have tried that, even before posting here, but I get a number of errors.

int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
'emp_year' : undeclared identifier
'.year' must have class/struct/union

So I have no idea what's going on. When I try this with structures, it works fine, but with classes, I am getting issues.

[ResidentBiscuit]

You're not declaring your objects. Do that, and you should be good to go

[Moschops]

When I try this with structures, it works fine, but with classes, I am getting issues.

That's very unfortunate, as in C++ a structure and a class are identical but for default privacy level. It makes no sense that you can do it with a structure but not with a class.

[naraku9333]

You are trying to access private members of the class from outside of the class. Either make Dates members public or add accessors/mutators.

EDIT:

cout<<"Enter the employee's start date in the format 'mm/dd/yyyy': ";
	cin>>emp_year;//problem here! 

If you want the date in that format you will need to overload operator>> in Date class and assign members there.