Why must the struct (;) be deleted to avoid error

[whodgson]

//if the ; is not deleted L5 the code will not compile.
//the error is shown below.
//without the ; the code runs as intended.
//could someone explain why?

#include<iostream>

struct Date {
int month,day,year;
}//;
birthdays[ ]={
    {12,17,37},
    {10,31,38},
    {6,24,40},
    {11,23,42},
    {8,5,44},
};
const Date& getdate(int n)
{
    return birthdays[n-1];
}

int main()
{
    int dt=99;
    while(dt!=0) {
    std::cout<<std::endl
             <<"Enter datr #(1-5, 0 to quit):";
             std::cin>>dt;
             if(dt>0 && dt<6){
             const Date& bd=getdate(dt);
             std::cout<<bd.month<<'/'
                      <<bd.day<<'/'
                      <<bd.year<<std::endl;
             }
    }
 return 0;
}
/*
--->> error: expected constructor, destructor, or type conversion before '=' token|

Enter datr #(1-5, 0 to quit):3
6/24/40

Enter datr #(1-5, 0 to quit):1
12/17/37

Enter datr #(1-5, 0 to quit):5
8/5/44

Enter datr #(1-5, 0 to quit):0

Process returned 0 (0x0)   execution time : 35.750 s
Press any key to continue.*/

[weaknessforcats]

Look carefully at your code.

A struct can be declared in order to create a variable:

struct X {

int member;
}aVar;

Without that semi-colon you have:

struct Date {
int month, day, year;
}birthday [] etc...

This is a variable named birthdays of type Date.

struct Date {
int month, day, year;
};birthday [] etc...

With semi-colon in there, the struct declaration is complete.
Now the birthday array has no type and C++ will not assume int. So your compile fails.

[whodgson]

To weaknessforcats ,
thanks for your explanation. I feel this question has been fully answered.