Please help me get started!

[05l8kr]

I have to write this from scratch, what do I do to start? I'm suppose to write a program that counts how many of each fee classification rode the subway on a given day (this is a set of if statements). The subway has three fee classifications : students (17 years old or less) adult, and senior (65 years old or more). I have to assume that the conductor has a laptop and enters the age of each rider. Your instructions tell the conductor to enter a -1 at the end of the day to terminate the data entry process ( a loop will cause the program to continue until a -1 is entered).

After the -1 is entered to stop the data entry process, your program must display the number of customers in each fee category.

Where to start? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Banfa]

Start with creating a while loop that lets you enter numbers and stops when you enter a -1 (or may be any minus value)

[05l8kr]

apstring name="subway";
i = 0;            //adult
while (i< name.length( ))    
{
      cout<< name[ i ] << endl;  
      i++;                            
cout << "There are " << i << " characters.\n";

I'm completely LOST

[Banfa]

Well you are going to need to use cin, can you write a single line that allows the user to input a number.

[05l8kr]

Well you are going to need to use cin, can you write a single line that allows the user to input a number.

I'm lost so anyone want to help me get started?

[gonzo]

I would make a while (or do-while) loop to keep taking ages until -1 is entered. I'd have 3 seperate counters for each age group. Make some If statements in the loop so each time an age is entered, 1 is added to that count. Hope that helps, and goodluck.

do
{
cout << "Enter your age: ";
cin >> age;
.... and then all the other code
} while (age != -1);

[05l8kr]

{
cout << "Enter your age: ";
cin >> age;
} while (age != -1);
apstring name="subway";
i = 0;            //adult
while (i< name.length( ))    
{
      cout<< name[ i ] << endl;  
      i++;                            
cout << "There are " << i << " characters.\n";

This is what I have so far, I'm lost anyone have aim or yahoo to talk to with?

[gonzo]

I'm not sure what you've learned so far, but here's how I'd go about it...

int age;
int count1 = 0;
int count2 = 0;
int count3 = 0;

do
{
   cout << "Enter an age: ";
   cin >> age;
   
   if ( age <= 17 )
   {
         count1++;
   }

   else if ( age < 65 )
    {
         count2++;
    }

    else if ( age >= 65 )
    {

      count3++;
    }

} while ( age != -1 );

//  the rest of the code should be easy to figure out. Just display the counts, (age groups)...

The idea is you're running a loop ( a do-while in this case) which will keep taking values from the user until -1 (the sentinel value) is entered. At that point, you want it to display the #'s of each age group, (your 3 counts) and end. I'm also new at this, but I've always learned best through examples. So hopefully this makes sense to you!! I do have AIM if you want to talk about it later... good luck.

[gonzo]

I forgot to add this, but It should be obvious once you get your program together and run it. You're going to want to add a " count1--; " after the loop to compensate for the -1 sentinel. Otherwise, it's going to say you have 1 extra person in age group one (17 and under)...

[05l8kr]

I forgot to add this, but It should be obvious once you get your program together and run it. You're going to want to add a " count1--; " after the loop to compensate for the -1 sentinel. Otherwise, it's going to say you have 1 extra person in age group one (17 and under)...

What do you mean by display the counts?

[gonzo]

What do you mean by display the counts?

You just want to stick those 3 counts at the end in a cout statement so the program does what it's supposed to. This program below should compile and execute fine, but I suggest you look everything over so that it makes sense to you.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

void main()
{
   int age;
   int count1 = 0;
   int count2 = 0;
   int count3 = 0;

   do
   {
       cout << "Enter an age: ";
       cin >> age;
   
       if ( age <= 17 )
       {
           count1++;
       }

      else if ( age < 65 )
      {
           count2++;
      }

       else if ( age >= 65 )
       {

          count3++;
       } 

   } while ( age != -1 );

     count1--; // subtract one off of count1 to compensate for the -1

      cout << "There were " << count1 << " people in the first age group, " << 
      endl <<  count2 << " people in the second age group and " << count3 <<
      endl <<  " in the third age group. " << endl << endl;

} // end main()

[sonic]

He means that after the heart and guts of your program (the code he posted) calculates what you're trying to keep track of that you need a way to display it; otherwise the program would be useless as it would never return to you the information you need. You might try something like:

cout << "Age category breakdown of transit use: \n\n";
cout << "17 and under: " << count1 << "\n\n";
cout << "18 - 64: " << count2 << "\n\n";
cout << "65 and above: " << count3 << "\n\n";

Also, you may want to look at your count2 code. I think there may be occasions where both count1 and count2 may be incremented. You may want to try something like:

else if (age >= 18 && age < 64)

Hope this helps!