How do I display the output of my C++ class - c++

Question

Hello guys I am trying to create a date class in C++ where it display the default date, displays a short set date, displays a long set date, just display a set year. However, I am trying this display the contents of the class when I input the data but I am getting an error "Use of undeclared identifier 'setDate'
Here is the header file code:
#ifndef dateClass_h
#define dateClass_h
using namespace std;
class DateObj
{
public:
int setDate(int month, int day, int year);
void shortDate(int month, int day, int year);
void longDate(string month, int day, int year);
//return the year
int getYear(int year){
return year;
}
private:
int month;
int day;
int year;
};
#endif /* dateClass_h */
Here is my implementation file code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include "dateClass.h"
using namespace std;
//setDate Method
int DateObj::setDate(int month, int day, int year){
//setMonth = month;
//day = setDay;
//year = setYear;
//check to make sure month is between 1 - 12.
if(month < 1 || month > 12){
cout << "This is an invalid Month. Please enter a month that is between 1 and 12: " << endl;
}
//check to make sure day is between 1 -31.
if(day < 1 || day > 31){
cout << "This is an invalid Day. Please enter a day that is between 1 and 31: " << endl;
}
//check to make sure year is greater than zero.
if(year < 0){
cout << "This is an invalid Year. Please enter a year that is greater than Zero" << endl;
}
return setDate(month,day,year);
}
And here is my main program code:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include "dateClass.h"
using namespace std;
int main() {
DateObj myDate;
myDate.setDate(12, 25, 2016); //set the date to Dec 25, 2016.
cout << "The current date is: " << setDate() << endl;
return 0;
}
I will just like to know why I am getting this error and what I will need to fix in my class or main program.
Edit
I got the program to compile butI got the following error "EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=2, address=0x7fff5f3fffe8) at the return setDate(month, day, year) break point.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include "dateClass.h"
using namespace std;
int main() {
DateObj myDate;
myDate.setDate(12,25,2016); //set the date to Dec 25, 2016.
cout << "The current date is: " << myDate.setDate(12, 25, 2016) << endl;
return 0;
}

Answer 1

There appears to be no implementation for your shortDate function.
You have it in your header file, but you don't appear to have it in your dateClass.cpp file. You need to implement it in your dateClass.cpp file similar to how you did for setDate.
You're getting the error because it can't find any implementation.

Answer 2

The reason you are getting an error is because setDate() is a void function. When you try to use setDate() in the line:
cout << "The current date is: " << setDate() << endl;
you get an error because setDate() needs to return an std::ostream & object or some other data that is convertible. I recommend using setDate(int month, int day, int year) purely to set the data members of your class and create a separate function to actually print out the values.
As an alternative, you could overload setDate() so that it returns an acceptable data type, like so:
#include <iomanip>
//the parameter 'right' is required for chaining together different << when forming output
std::ostream & DateObj::setDate(std::ostream & right) {
//displays the date in mm/dd/yyyy format
//setfill defines a character to fill empty spaces created by setw
right << std::setfill('0') << std::setw(2) << month
<< '/' << std::setfill('0') << std::setw(2) << day
<< '/' << std::setfill('0') << std::setw(4) << year;
return right;
}

Answer 3

Well, for one thing you're calling setDate() inside setDate() in such a way that it will infinitely just call itself. You'll call setDate(), which will call setDate(), which will call setDate() and so on. I'm kind of a noob too, but I'm pretty sure what you're getting is a stack overflow error (Hey, title drop! :D). A stack overflow happens when you allocate too many variables and run out of memory. So because you're calling setDate() infinitely, you are also making infinite versions of the variables in it, and filling up all your memory.
For another, set date doesn't currently actually do anything. It checks to see if you have valid input, then calls itself again. From the name, I assume it's meant to populate your member variables? If that's what it's supposed to do, it should probably look more like this:
int DateObj::setDate(int month, int day, int year){
//check to make sure month is between 1 - 12.
if(month < 1 || month > 12){
cout << "This is an invalid Month. Please enter a month that is between 1 and 12: " << endl;
}
//check to make sure day is between 1 -31.
if(day < 1 || day > 31){
cout << "This is an invalid Day. Please enter a day that is between 1 and 31: " << endl;
}
//check to make sure year is greater than zero.
if(year < 0){
cout << "This is an invalid Year. Please enter a year that is greater than Zero" << endl;
}
//the part that actually sets the variables. Aka, the important bit.
month_ = month;
day_ = day;
year_ = year
}
The trailing underscores on month, day and year are just style things, I like to use them for member data so that I can use those names again as local variables in my functions, which was useful here if you noticed. Once you've put the data into your variables, it should be pretty easy to display everything. Just do something like:
cout << month_ << "/" << day_ << "/" << year_ << endl;
That will output your date to the console in a format something like this: 3/12/2016.