Can someone explain why I get this number?

[alphatom]

Running my code I get a number close to -8 million or so.. I'm sure it's not supposed to be that small, in fact it should be between 0 and 100.

  #include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;


void getStudentName(string &first, string &last);
void getNumberExams(int &examstaken);
void getScoresandCalculateTotal(int &scores);
void calculateAverage();
void determineLetterGrade();
float displayAverage();

int exam;

int main()
{
	string first, last;
	
	int total;
	
	
	getStudentName(first, last);
	cout << first << " " << last << endl;
	getNumberExams(exam);
	getScoresandCalculateTotal(total);
	cout << "Your total is: " << total << endl;

}

void getStudentName(string &a, string &b)
{ 
	string first, last;
	cout << "Hello! Please enter your first name: " << endl;
	cin >> first;
	cout << "And your last name?" << endl;
	cin >> last;

	cout << "Hey " << first << " " << last << "!" << endl;
}

void getNumberExams(int &exams)
{
	int exam;
	cout << "How many exams have you taken? " << endl;
	cin >> exam;
	if (exam > 0)
		cout << "You've taken " << exam << " exams. That's great!" << endl;
	while (exam <= 0)
	{
		cout << "That can't be right! Please put in the number of exams you have taken: " << endl;
	cin >> exam;
	}
	
}

void getScoresandCalculateTotal(int &total)
{
	int totals = 0;
	int score = 0;
	int takenexams = 0;
	
	while (takenexams <= exam)
	{

		cout << "Enter your exam score" << endl;
		cin >> score;
		takenexams++;
		totals += score;
	}
		

}

[Ispil]

Line 63, what is the value of exam?

[alphatom]

I took int exam out on line 44 since exam is a global variable but it's value is given in the second function. Now it's asking for one more exam score than the given number and then displaying the -8 million again.

[dhayden]

Same problem at line 59. The caller is expecting you to update the parameter (total) but you're actually updating a local variable (totals)

[alphatom]

Well I moved the total variable to a global scope and it worked. Thanks for all of the responses!

[dhayden]

Congratulations!

Now you might want to make the code even better by having getScoresAndCalculateTotal() and getNumberExams() return their respective values. Then you can make exam a local var. In otherwords, change the functions so that main() looks like this:

int main()
{
	string first, last;
	int exam, total;

	getStudentName(first, last);
	cout << first << " " << last << endl;
	exam = getNumberExams();
	total = getScoresandCalculateTotal();
	cout << "Your total is: " << total <<endl;
	return 0;   // I added this. It's good form to return 0 from main on success
}