Modifying the Create Account Program - c++

Question

I am a student currently learning C++ and I need some help. I am currently working on a textbook exercise from the book Murach's C++ Programming. I am working on Exercise 7-2 (second exercise in chapter 7). The instructions for the program are here: Exercise 7-2 instructions I've managed to make sense of most of it, but I am currently stuck on step 9. I know how to call functions, but when I run the program, it only allows me to enter my full name. After I do that, the program ends without letting me enter my password or email. And yes I have added a return value to my variables as needed. How can I make the program let me enter my full name, password and email like it's supposed to? Nothing that I've tried seems to work. I've tried returning a value of 0, I've tried making a local variable and then adding the return value to said variable, but none of that worked. Please help me understand what I'm supposed to do as I'm still new to C++ and have a lot to learn. By the way, I'm using Microsoft Visual Studios as my IDE.
Here's the code that I have so far for my main.cpp file:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include "validation.h"
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cout << "Create Account\n\n";
// get full name and parse first name
string full_name;
string first_name;
bool valid_name = false;
while (!valid_name) {
cout << "Enter full name: ";
getline(cin, full_name);
// strip whitespace from front
int i = full_name.find_first_not_of(" \n\t");
if (i > -1) {
full_name = full_name.substr(i);
}
// get first name
int space_index = full_name.find(' ');
if (space_index == -1) {
cout << "You must enter your full name. Please try again.\n";
}
else {
first_name = full_name.substr(0, space_index);
valid_name = true;
}
}
cout << endl;
bool validation::is_valid_password(string password);
bool validation::is_valid_email(string email);
// make sure first name uses initial cap
char letter = first_name[0];
first_name[0] = toupper(letter);
for (int i = 1; i < first_name.length(); ++i) {
letter = first_name[i];
first_name[i] = tolower(letter);
}
// display welcome message
cout << "Hi " << first_name << ",\n"
<< "Thanks for creating an account!\n\n";
}
And the code I have so far with the validation.cpp implementation file:
#include "validation.h"
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
using namespace validation;
bool validation::is_valid_password(string password) {
bool valid_password = false;
while (!valid_password) {
valid_password = true;
cout << "Enter password: ";
getline(cin, password);
if (password.length() < 8) {
cout << "Password must be at least 8 characters.\n";
valid_password = false;
}
int index = password.find_first_of("0123456789");
if (index == -1) {
cout << "Password must include a number.\n";
valid_password = false;
}
bool special_character = false;
for (char c : password) {
if (ispunct(c)) {
special_character = true;
break;
}
}
if (!special_character) {
cout << "Password must include a special character.\n";
valid_password = false;
}
if (!valid_password) {
cout << "Please try again.\n";
}
else {
password = password.substr(0, index);
valid_password = true;
}
}
cout << endl;
return false;
}
bool validation::is_valid_email(string email) {
bool valid_email = false;
while (!valid_email) {
valid_email = true;
cout << "Enter email: ";
getline(cin, email);
int at_index = email.find('#');
if (at_index == -1) {
cout << "The email must include an at character (#).\n";
valid_email = false;
}
int dot_index = email.rfind('.');
if (dot_index == -1) {
cout << "The email must include a dot operator (.).\n";
valid_email = false;
}
bool valid_chars = true;
for (char c : email) {
if (c != '#' && c != '.' && c != '_' && c != '-') {
if (!isalnum(c)) {
valid_chars = false;
break;
}
}
}
if (at_index == 0) {
cout << "The local part of the email must include at least one character.\n";
valid_email = false;
}
if (dot_index - at_index == 1) {
cout << "The server name of the email must include at least one character.\n";
valid_email = false;
}
if (email.length() - dot_index - 1 != 3 && email.length() - dot_index - 1 != 2) {
cout << "The domain name of the email must have two or three characters.\n";
valid_email = false;
}
if (!valid_email) {
cout << "Please try again.\n";
}
else {
email = email.substr(0, at_index);
email = email.substr(0, dot_index);
valid_email = true;
}
}
cout << endl;
return false;
}
And the code I have for the validation header file:
#ifndef T_FRYE_VALIDATION_H
#define T_FRYE_VALIDATION_H
#endif // !T_FRYE_VALIDATION_H
#include <string>
using namespace std;
namespace validation {
bool is_valid_password(string password);
bool is_valid_email(string email);
}
I know that this is a lot to read, and I'm really sorry about that, but I'm at a loss as to what to do next. If anyone can help me, I'd really appreciate it.

Answer 1

The calls to your validation functions are malformed. You attempt to call the code
validation::isvalid_password(); from main but what you provide instead is:
bool validation::is_valid_password(string password);
bool validation::is_valid_email(string email);
which are declarations. You need to actually call the code you want.
string password;
string email;
validation::isvalid_password(password);
validation::is_valid_email(email);

Answer 2

What do you think these two lines do inside the main() function?
int main()
{
// ...
bool validation::is_valid_password(string password);
bool validation::is_valid_email(string email);
// ...
}
That is not a function call, that is just a declaration of the function. You should have something like:
int main()
{
// ...
std::string password;
while (!validation::is_valid_password(password));
std::string email;
while (!validation::is_valid_email(email));
// ...
}
There are many other problems in your code anyway... For example, if you are reading something inside the function is_valid_xxx (which is a bad design by itself because is_-type of functions shouldn't do anything except checking the values), you should pass the string by reference:
bool validation::is_valid_password(string &password);
Even if you don't plan to get the new value, passing something by value is a bad idea in this type of functions. Pass the value by reference to const:
bool validation::is_valid_password(const string &password);