No idea what to do next

[Gemstone29]

K so I'v been trying for the past four days to sort this program out, i'll admit i'm not particularly good at programming, i'm really new at it and I'm struggling through my uni course, i've written as much of this program as i can but i don't know what to do next.

Here's what i'v got

#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>

using namespace std;

// The precondition statement indicates what
// must be true before the function is called.
// The postcondition statement indicates what
// will be true when the function finishes its work.

int largest_prime_factor (int a);
// precondition: a > 0
// postcondition: the function returns to the largest prime factor of a

int squared_digit_length (int a);
// precondition: a > 0
// postcondition: the function returns to the square digit length starting from a

// define other functions if necessary

int main ()
{
char ch1, ch2; // ch1 is used for the first letter of the first name
// ch2 is used for the first letter of the surname
int n1, n2, n3, n4, n5; // used for the 5 steps of the task

cout << "Enter your first name and surname: " << flush;
cin >> ch1; // read the first letter of the first name
cin.ignore(100,' '); // ignore the rest of the character in the first name
cin >> ch2; // read the first letter of the surname

n1 = static_cast<int>(ch1);

n2 = static_cast<int>(ch2);

n3= squared_digit_length(n1);

n4 = squared_digit_length(n2);

n5 = n4 + n5;

cout << n1 << n2 << endl;


return 0;
}


int square_digit_length(int a)

{
int ones, tens, hundreds;
float floatOnes, floatTens, floatHundreds;
int num = 0;
int a;

while (a = 4)
{
if (a >= 100)
tens = (a/100)%10;
else tens = a/10;

ones = a%10;
hundreds = a/100;
floatOnes = pow((float)ones,2);
floatTens = pow((float)tens,2);
floatHundreds = pow ((float)hundreds,2);
num++;
a= (floatOnes+floatTens+floatHundreds);

}


}


basically the program has to take in a first and last name, convert the first letters of the name into thier ASCII values, calculate the squared digit length of both letters, then output those lengths and the largets prime factor of those lenghts added together.

I know i need to use return functions but i don't really understand how they work and i need a function for the largest prime factor.
i'd really apreciate it if anyone could help, and would love it if people could explain their suggestions so that i actually learn something from it. Thanx C:

[Gemstone29]

It's in C++ by the way, sorry forgot to add that

[Modifier]

Every character has a different number under which it is stored on your computer. There are 256 different ASCII codes (the possible values a byte can hold), that is why a character takes one byte.

// Transform a word into ASCII code

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    char word[32];
    int x = 0;
    cout << "Please enter the word (maximum 32 characters):\n";
    cin >> word;
    cout << "The ASCII for this word is:\n";
    while (word[x] != '\0')    // While the string isn't at the end...
    {
        cout << int(word[x]);    // Transform the char to int
        x++;
    }
    cout << "\n";
    return 0;
}

With the while loop trough the array and convert every character using int(word[x]) to its ASCII value. If we hit at the end of the string, the while loop returns false and ends.

[Reegan]

I think the functions that you have created must return the values to the main function from where it is called. So, using return functions is extremely important.

Also, check the compiling errors which you are getting. That will best tell you where you are going wrong...

goodluck