Okay, the objective of this is to have the user pick one of the four basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), and then pick the 2 integers for the operation, and then have the program spit out the result. I seem to be having a problem storing the symbol for the math operation and then using it at the end to actually perform the math. Here's what I got so far:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
    char symbol;
    int a;
    int b;

    cout << "Please decide what kind of operation you want done; +, -, * or /: ";
    cin >> symbol;

    cout << "Now please enter the first number: ";
    cin >> a;

    cout << "And the second: ";
    cin >> b;
    int c = a, symbol, c;

    cout << c;
}

I think my problem is how the symbol is stored, and char isn't cutting it.

So, any advice would be great!

Okay, so, I got rid of trying to define c and implemented a 4 part else if statement (I haven't learned about switch yet), and now I'm getting one last error:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
    string symbol;
    int a;
    int b;

    cout << "Please decide what kind of operation you'd like to complete: ";
    cin >> symbol;

    cout << "And now please decide the first number for the operation: ";
    cin >> a;

    cout << "And now the second, please: ";
    cin >> b;

    if ( symbol == "+" )
    {
        cout << a << " + " << b << " = " << a + b << endl;
    }
    else if ( symbol == "-" )
    {
        cout << a << " - " << b << " = " << a - b << endl;
    }
    else if ( symbol == "*" )
    {
        cout << a << " * " << b << " = " << a * b << endl;
    }
    else
    {
        cout << a << " / " << b << " = " a / b << endl; // error: expected ';' before 'a'
        return 0;
    }
}

You are missing an << between " = " and a / b.

Haha, thank you!

Did you noticed that right away Paradigm, or did the error give you an idea as to what to look for? Because whenever I look at the compiler error, all I ever manage to understand in it is "error: this crap is broke!"

Okay, so, I got rid of trying to define c and implemented a 4 part else if statement (I haven't learned about switch yet), and now I'm getting one last error:

cout << a << " / " << b << " = " a / b << endl; // error: expected ';' before 'a'

Because the << operator allows you to output one value, and you're trying to output a string followed by a number. What you want is:

cout << a << " / " << b << " = " << a / b << endl;

Did you noticed that right away Paradigm, or did the error give you an idea as to what to look for? Because whenever I look at the compiler error, all I ever manage to understand in it is "error: this crap is broke!"

These "error: expected ';' before..." messages can be pretty cryptic, but in this case it's actually fairly helpful. Basically it just means that the parser got confused somewhere in that line, in this case right before the 'a'. So look at the line and find the first 'a', and if there's nothing wrong right before it keep looking for another 'a'. In this case where that second 'a' is should be either a ';' or another '<<' or whatever else that makes sense.

But generally this error just means look at that line until you find what's wrong, and sometimes that means the error is actually in the previous line.

These "error: expected ';' before..." messages can be pretty cryptic, but in this case it's actually fairly helpful. Basically it just means that the parser got confused somewhere in that line, in this case right before the 'a'. So look at the line and find the first 'a', and if there's nothing wrong right before it keep looking for another 'a'. In this case where that second 'a' is should be either a ';' or another '<<' or whatever else that makes sense.

But generally this error just means look at that line until you find what's wrong, and sometimes that means the error is actually in the previous line.

Thank you 0r0d. I think understanding how to debug your own code is one of the most important parts of programming, and I'd definitely like to understand how the computer see's these errors.