enum problem

[gamerkruger]

For class I have a main function provided by the instructor, and I need to build everything to make his main to work correctly. It is based on a Date class that we previously made that has a normal print function in MM/DD/YYYY. I know how to do everything except this:

Date::setFormat(TEXT);
   cout << d1 << endl;    // October 11, 2010
   cout << d2 << endl;    // October 11, 2010
   d2 = d1--;
   cout << d1 << endl;    // October 10, 2010
   cout << d2 << endl;    // October 11, 2010
   d2 = --d1;
   Date::setFormat(NUMERIC);
   cout << d1 << endl;    // 10/9/2010
   cout << d2 << endl;    // 10/9/2010
   d2 = d1 - 7;
   cout << d2 << endl;    // 10/2/2010
   d2 = d1 + 7;
   cout << d2 << endl;    // 10/16/2010 

I don't know how to convert the format to words without creating new objects. I believe it's related to enum, because that's what I can gather from the notes but I can't find a solution anywhere. Any help is appreciated.

[hamsterman]

Is converting ints to words your only problem or is there more?
Anyway, you will most definitely need a lot of constant strings. For example, a print function could look like this:

const char* month[] = {"January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June",
     "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"};
//assume variables m, d, y.
cout << month[m] << " " << d << ", " << y;

[gamerkruger]

Well it's hard for me to explain. He gave us the main function file and told us to make a class with methods that, when compiled and ran, would give the same output that is in the comments next to each line. Where I am really confused is the "Date::setFormat(TEXT)" and "NUMERIC" lines. I don't know what that could even refer to and after reading on enum's for a while I haven't seen anything like that. So I guess my question is what do lines 1 and 8 mean and how do I go about making a method for that that changes the output of each Date object?

[hamsterman]

Date::setFormat(TEXT); is a static function. For it to make some difference, it has to change some variable. Since the function is static, so is the variable. Your class could look like this:

enum FORMAT{TEXT, NUMERIC};
class Date{
   ...
   static FORMAT format;
public:
   static void setFormat(FORMAT f){
      format = f;
   }
};
FORMAT Date::format = TEXT;

//and then in your operator <<...
if(Date::format == TEXT){
   //pretty much my code
}else if(Date::format == NUMERIC){
   //print mm/dd/yyy
}

note you'll probably have to make operator << a friend function, write a getFormat function of make Date::format public.