Printing Structure inputs from class member function - c++

Question

I would like to know how to input/initialize a start_date and end_date (which comes from a structure Date that has integers of month day and year from the function `initializeDate. Once I am able to initialize I assume I will be able to use the same logic in the printout member function.
struct Date
{
int month;
int day;
int year;
};
void initializeDate(Date &d)
{
cout<<"Please enter the month"<<endl;
cin>>start.month;
cout<<"Please enter the day"<<endl;
cin>>start.day;
cout<<"Please enter the year"<<endl;
cin>>start.year;
string dummy;
getline(cin, dummy);
}
edit: the error that I am getting is 'start' was not declared in this scope.

Answer 1

This is very basic, please read a good book on C++. Posting below because you have put in an effort :)
void Information::initializeDate(Date &d) //comes from the Information class.
{
// Commented as part of question change!
// Date d; // Guessing that the structure is the private member of the class.
cout<<"Please enter the month"<<endl;
cin>>d.month;
cout<<"Please enter the day"<<endl;
cin>>d.day;
cout<<"Please enter the year"<<endl;
cin>>d.year;
string dummy;
getline(cin, dummy);
}
** Just Edited the code as per your change in question

Answer 2

It looks like you keep updating the example code. Based on the current revision, I think this is what you want:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
struct Date
{
int month;
int day;
int year;
};
void initializeDate(Date &date)
{
cout<<"Please enter the month"<<endl;
cin>>date.month;
cout<<"Please enter the day"<<endl;
cin>>date.day;
cout<<"Please enter the year"<<endl;
cin>>date.year;
}
int main()
{
Date start, end;
initializeDate(start);
initializeDate(end);
cout << start.year << "/" << start.month << "/" << start.day << endl;
cout << end.year << "/" << end.month << "/" << end.day << endl;
return 0;
};

Answer 3

Ok, there are a couple of problems here, that you should target. First, to fix your code, the error is very simple: there isn't anywhere in your code in which a variable named start was declared/defined. So, the compiler is asking you what start is. You are trying, I assume, to initialize the values of the members of d, that you passed in the function initializeDate, and all you have to do is just replace every occurence of the word start with d, and you'll get:
void initializeDate(Date &d)
{
cout<<"Please enter the month"<<endl;
cin>> d.month;
cout<<"Please enter the day"<<endl;
cin>> d.day;
cout<<"Please enter the year"<<endl;
cin>> d.year;
string dummy;
getline(cin, dummy);
}
Now, although this works, it's not the best way to initialize the date. Since Date is a struct, you can initialize its members using a constructor method. This is achieved by writing it like this:
struct Date{
int day, month, year;
Date(int, int, int);
};
Date:: Date(int day, int month, int year){
this->day = day;
this->month = month;
this->year = year;
}
int main(){
Date today(11, 3, 2013);
cout << "today, the date is " << today.day << "-" << today.month << "-" << today.year << endl;
return 0;
}