C++ and Other Programming Languages

Yeah. I mean, I have a lot of concerns about being a potential beginning programmer in my mid 40s. I know plenty of people start over in new careers later in life, but still...I'm worried.

But I've been getting into deeper and deeper Excel formulas for years, and at some point they're basically a programming language in themselves...

We'll see if I can get past the basic level in this one. I got stuck in Python when I tried to continue on my own, but not sure if that was an ACTUAL stuck or just being too lazy to study it in more depth. As it is now, I'm a week ahead in my programming class.

Okay, might as well post this here because it's aggravating me and I'm not sure what the problem is, if it's a typo somewhere, or a problem with the data file itself, or what?

This program is supposed to read input from a data file (rainfall.dat) and print it, line by line:

===============================

// This program displays a table of July rainfall totals for several
// American cities. It calls a function to read the data from a file
// one line at a time. The data values are stored in reference
// parameters so they can be seen and used by the main function.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

// Function prototype
bool readData(ifstream &someFile, string &city, double &rain);

int main()
{
ifstream inputFile;
string city;
double inchesOfRain;

// Display table headings
cout << "July Rainfall Totals for Selected Cities \n\n";
cout << " City Inches \n";
cout << "________________ \n";

// Open the data file
inputFile.open("rainfall.dat");
if (inputFile.fail())
cout << "Error opening data file.\n";
else
{
// Call the readData function
// Execute the loop as long as it is found and read data
while (readData(inputFile, city, inchesOfRain) == true)
{
cout << setw(11) << left << city;
cout << fixed << showpoint << setprecision(2)
<< inchesOfRain << endl;
}
inputFile.close();
}
return 0;
}

// readData - Each time it is called, this function reads the next
// one line of data from the input file passed to it. It stores
// the input data in reference variables. Then, if it read data,
// it returns true. If there was no more data in the file to read,
// it returns false.
bool readData(ifstream &someFile, string &city, double &rain)
{
bool foundData = someFile >> city >> rain;
return foundData;
}

===============================

The data file, rainfall.dat, includes this information:

Chicago 3.70
Tampa 6.49
Houston 3.80

When I try to compile this program, I get this error:

error: cannot convert 'std::basic_istream<char>::__istream_type' {aka 'std::basic_istream<char>'} to 'bool' in initialization

I have a vague idea that it is confused converting an input stream into a boolean value, but I'm not sure how to FIX this problem. Anyone?

Perfect, thank you so much! So frustrating when the textbook itself has an error.

I started a C++ class, and it gave me like two pages of lessons before saying "Congrats, now do the Pro course!" and had no other content.

So far I like C++ quite a bit, and am having no major issues understanding it...

...but I DO have an issue with our professor not having graded last week's assignment before our next one was due, so we now have about a week and a half without any feedback from him whatsoever...that's not a good sign in an 8-week course. At least two of us have emailed him as well (one on Friday, me yesterday) to ask about it and received no response either.

EDIT - He replied, apologized to everyone for grading the assignments but forgetting to release the grades in Canvas. I got my second A+.

I understand basic 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional arrays. I have yet to wrap my head around anything more complex than that.

Some versions of BASIC also start at 1 (including the version that was included on the Apple II+ I first learned programming on).