designing three book classes for c++ - c++

Question

I'm very new to the program world and I am stuck at the moment. I'm suppose to design a bookrecord that contains the title, author, publisher, category (Dewey decimal), and date of publication. For booklist I need to know how to add a new bookrecord object, find a bookrecord given the title, remove a bookrecord object, and show all the bookrecord objects. For booklistUI, I need the menu, command processor, add records, remove records, display all records. I am sort of lost as to where I should begin how would I start it out? I do have some of it so far... is it correct?
This is what I have so far
/*
Title: CSU Bodie.cpp
Description: implements three classes to make a simple searchable list of the library holdings.
*/
#include <iostream>;
#include <string>;
#include <vector>;
using namespace std;
//Define a name class...
class ShortName {
string FirstName;
string LastName;
public:
ShortName(); //Define a default constructor...
ShortName(string, string); //...and an initializing one...
//Define some mutators...
void SetFirst(string First) { FirstName = First; }
void SetLast(string Last) { LastName = Last; }
//...and some accessors...
string GetFirst() { return FirstName; }
string GetLast() { return LastName; }
};
ShortName::ShortName()
{
FirstName = "";
LastName = "";
}
ShortName::ShortName(string First, string Last)
{
FirstName = First;
LastName = Last;
}
//Define a list class...
class ShortNameList {
vector<ShortName> List; //Create a specific sized list...
public:
ShortNameList() {;} //Nothing for it to do at this point...
void AddRecord(string, string);
void ShowList();
};
void ShortNameList::AddRecord( string First, string Last)
{
ShortName NameBuffer;
NameBuffer.SetFirst(First);
NameBuffer.SetLast(Last);
List.push_back(NameBuffer);
}
void ShortNameList::ShowList()
{
int K;
for(K = 0 ; K < List.size() ; K++)
cout << List[K].GetFirst() << " " List[K].GetLast() << endl;
}
class ShortNameUI {
ShortNameList Collection;
public:
ShortNameUI() {;}
void Menu();
void AddNewRecord();
void RunIT();
};
//This gives us options...
void ShortNameUI::Menu()
{
cout << "Choices..." << endl;
cout << "====================================================================" << endl;
cout << "\\tAdd.........allows the user to enter names." << endl;
cout << "\\tDisplay......shows the names." << endl;
cout << "\\tQuit.........terminates the program" << endl;
cout << "====================================================================" << endl;
}
void ShortNameUI::RunIT()
{
string Command;
while(true) {
Menu();
cout << "Command: ";
getline(cin, Command);
if(Command == "Quit")
break;
else if(Command == "Add")
AddNewRecord();
else if(Command == "Display")
Collection.ShowList();
}
}
void ShortNameUI::AddNewRecord()
{
string First, Last;
cout << "Enter Names Below, Stop To Quit" << endl;
while(true) {
cout << "First Name: ";
getline(cin, First);
if(First == "Stop")
break;
cout << "Last Name: ";
getline(cin, Last);
if(Last == "Stop")
break;
Collection.AddRecord(First, Last);
}
}
int main()
{
ShortNameUI NameList;
NameList.RunIT();
}
}

Answer 1

Yes, what you have is a good start - once you fix compilation.
Preprocessor directives are not statements so should not be terminated with ;
There is a stray } at the end of the file.
You seem get that adding the full book details will be much the same. The key thing is that you need to find a book from the title. The simplest thing to do is to change from a vector<> to store the books to a map<>.
typedef std::string Title;
class BookDetails
{
// etc.
};
typedef std::map<Title, BookDetails> BookCollection;
Look up the documentation on std::map<> to see how it used.

Answer 2

Please try to pass parameters as a reference instead of passing by values. For eg.
instead of
void SetFirst(string First);
try to use
void SetFirst(string& First);
better still, if you are sure that the value is not going to change inside the function use like this SetFirst(const string& First);
This will save you from grief later.
Is this a console application or windows application that you are developing? If Console application the UI will be straight forward, but if Windows application you have to use either MFC or pure Win32.