Question

I can’t change a lot of things in this code due to certain limitations on the assignment. Here is the code:

#include <iostream>
#include<cstdlib>
#include<cstring>

using namespace std;
struct MyTime { int hours, minutes, seconds; };
int DetermineElapsedTime(const MyTime *t1, const MyTime *t2);
const int hourSeconds = 3600;
const int minSeconds = 60;

int DetermineElapsedTime(const MyTime *t1, const MyTime *t2)
{//problem about static in next line
    static MyTime ((long) (((t2.hours * hourSeconds) + (t2.minutes * minSeconds) +  t2.seconds) -
                   ((t1.hours * hourSeconds) + (t1.minutes * minSeconds) + t1.seconds)));
    return(MyTime);
}

It is not the entire thing but I need to somehow calculate the amount of time from primary input to the other. I will need to used setfill too.

Anyway, does anyone know how to fix the error about needing a primary expression before static?

Answer 1

There are many problems in this piece of code.

First, you cannot return a struct type, you need to return a variable.

When creating your static variable, you failed to give it a name and use the = sign.

When using pointers you need to use -> instead of .

Now, the logic in your code will give you the difference in seconds, you will then need to convert it to proper hours, minutes and seconds to fill a MyTime variable. Here’s an example of how you could compute the time (not tested, just an example):

int difference = (t2->hours * hoursSeconds + t2->minutes * minSeconds + t2->seconds) - (t1->hours * hoursSeconds + t1->minutes * minSeconds + t1->seconds); // this gives you a difference in seconds
int hoursDifference = difference / hoursSeconds; // how many full hours we have
difference -= hoursDifference * hoursSeconds; // remove from total what we just computed
int minsDifference = difference / minsSeconds; // how many full minutes we have
difference -= minsDifference * minsSeconds;
MyTime diff;
diff.hours = hoursDifference;
diff.minutes = minsDifference;
diff.seconds = difference;
return diff;