C# console application - commission calculator - how to use method within method

Question

I'm new to C# and I have encountered some problems with my console application that I'm recently working on. I am trying to have 3 methods:

getsales to get the sales the user made, calcCom to calculate the commission for the sales and finally main to make them work and establish the program.

I'm having trouble to make those methods work with(in) each other.

After i entered all the sales, the program goes to the else-statement and tells me "invalid entry". Since i haven't really gotten to output the variables I didn't expect any kind of output, but I want the program to tell the user the commission and sale for each person.

Please excuse me if I misused any terms or words, like I said I am new to this language! :D

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication38
{
class Program
{

    public static void getsales ()
    {
        string inputsales;
        double total = 0;
        double sale = 0;

        for (int salecount = 1; salecount <= 3; ++salecount)
        {

            Console.WriteLine("Enter sale: ");
            inputsales = Console.ReadLine();
            sale = Convert.ToDouble(inputsales);
            total = total + sale;
            Console.WriteLine();
        }
    }

    public static void calcComm ()
    {
        double total = 0;
        double comm = 0;
        comm = total * 0.2;

    }


    static void Main()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("           Sunshine Hot Tubs \n        Sales Commissions Report\n");
        char Letter;
        string name;
        const string name1 = "Andreas";
        const string name2 = "Brittany";
        const string name3 = "Eric";
        string inputLetter;

        Console.WriteLine("Please enter intial or type z to quit");

        inputLetter = Console.ReadLine();
        Letter = Convert.ToChar(inputLetter);



        while (Letter != 'z')
        {

            if (Letter == 'a')
            {
                name = name1;
                getsales();
                calcComm();
            }
               if (Letter == 'b')
               {
                   name = name2;
                   getsales();
                   calcComm();
               }
                   if (Letter == 'e')
                   {
                       name = name3;
                       getsales();
                       calcComm();
                   }

                   else
                   {

                      Console.WriteLine("Invalid entry try again");
                      inputLetter = Console.ReadLine();

                   }


        }
    }
 }
}

Answer 1

I think your problem is you need this:

if (Letter == 'a')
{
    name = name1;
    getsales();
    calcComm();
}
else if (Letter == 'b')
{
     name = name2;
     getsales();
     calcComm();
}
else if (Letter == 'e')
{
     name = name3;
     getsales();
     calcComm();
}
else
{

    Console.WriteLine("Invalid entry try again");
    inputLetter = Console.ReadLine();
}

You also need to copy this code after the else block, at the very end of your while loop.

Console.WriteLine("Please enter intial or type z to quit");

inputLetter = Console.ReadLine();
Letter = Convert.ToChar(inputLetter);

Also, remove this line from inside the else block. It isn't needed.

inputLetter = Console.ReadLine();

You probably intended to display the commision on the console. Change your getsales and calcComm to look like this:

public static void getsales ()
{
    string inputsales;
    double total = 0;
    double sale = 0;

    for (int salecount = 1; salecount <= 3; ++salecount)
    {

        Console.WriteLine("Enter sale: ");
        inputsales = Console.ReadLine();
        sale = Convert.ToDouble(inputsales);
        total = total + sale;
        Console.WriteLine();
    }
    calcComm(total);
}

public static void calcComm (double total)
{
    double comm = 0;
    comm = total * 0.2;
    Console.WriteLine(comm);
}

Then remove all calls to calcComm from the Main method.

Answer 2

calcComm() doesn't do anything...

I think you might want to have some of your variables as global so that if they are modified by a method you can still retrieve their value, or even better pass them to the method and get them returned with the new values.

To declare global variables you should declare them inside the class Program but outside any method and then make sure that no other methods have variables with the same name

Answer 3

The variable "total" is in the two methods and they do not persist the data that you are looking for between the two methods that you have defined. That is, the total variable in getSales() method is different from calcComm() method.

You should move this:

    double total = 0; 

outside of the two methods and put it within the class with a static scope. Like:

class Program    
{        
    static double total;

Also, reinitialize total to zero within your getSales() method.