Assistance with enumeration in combination with user-defined functions.

[nicbarker]

Hello:

I am having a little trouble with an assignment that involves enumeration. While my code seems to work, my instructor informed me that I am only to use user-defined function, with for statements, while loops, switch statements in the main body. Embarrassingly, for whatever reason, I can't seem to wrap my head how I am supposed to rewrite my switch statement as a user-defined function.

Here is what the assignment is asking for:

1a) Define an enumeration type, triangleType, that has the value scalene, isosceles, equilateral, and noTriangle.

b) Write a function, triangleShape that takes as parameters three numbers, each of which represents the length of a side of thed triangle. The function should return the shape of the triangle. (Note: In a triangle, the sum of the lengths of any two sides is greater than the length of the third side).

c) Write a program that prompts the user to input the length of the side of a triangle and outputs the shape of the triangle.

And here is what I have so far:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

//user-defined (enumerator) data type
typedef int side;
enum triangleType { scalene, isosceles, equilateral, noTriangle } shape;

void sideTri(side&, side&, side&);
triangleType triangleShape(side&, side&, side&, triangleType&);


int main() {
	side a;
	side b;
	side c;
	int type;


	type = triangleShape(a, b, c, shape);


	switch (type) {
	case 0:
		cout << "This is a scalene triangle." << endl;
		break;
	case 1:
		cout << "This is an isosceles triangle." << endl;
		break;
	case 2:
		cout << "This is an equilateral triangle." << endl;
		break;
	case 3:
		cout << "This is not a triangle." << endl;
		break;
	}

	return 0;
}

void sideTri(side& a, side& b, side& c)
{
	cout << "Enter side a: ";
	cin >> a;

	cout << "Enter side b: ";
	cin >> b;

	cout << "Enter side c: ";
	cin >> c;
}

triangleType triangleShape(side& a, side& b, side& c, triangleType& shape) 
{

	if (a == b && b == c)			        return equilateral;

	else if (a == b || b == c || c == a)		return isosceles;

	else if (a != b && b != c && c != a)		return scalene;

	else						return noTriangle;
}

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.