I am trying to write a program that computes the area of a right triangle. It has to use a function to compute the area. This is actually a part of a bigger program, but when I couldn't get it to work I isolated this section. I tried looking on google for help, but nothing I found seemed to help. I get no errors when I compile, but when I try to execute I get the following error:

Linking...
area.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "double __cdecl findarea(double,double)" (?findarea@@YANNN@Z)
Debug/area.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals
Error executing link.exe.

area.exe - 2 error(s), 0 warning(s)

Below is my code:

//Program to compute the area of a right triangle
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <fstream>



//Declare std
using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::endl;
using std::ios;
using std::cerr;
using std::ofstream;

//Function Prototype
double findarea (double,double);

//Start the program
int main ()
{

//Declare the variables
	double a; //side a
	double b; //side b
	double d; //area


//Open the file for output
	ofstream datafile ("program.txt", ios::out);

//Error routine if file can not be created
	if (!datafile) {
		cerr << "File could not be opened" << endl;
		exit (1);
	}

//Initialize a 
	a=1;

//Describe program to user
	cout << "This program will compute the area of a right triangle.\n\nSet side a or b to 0 or less to end the program.";
	datafile << "This program will compute the area of a right triangle.\n\nSet side a or b to 0 or less to end the program.";

//Begin the WHILE loop to set sentinal value to loop the program
	while (a>0){


//Get a 
		cout << "\n\nEnter the length of side a: " << endl;
		cin >> a;
		datafile << "\n\nSide a is: " << a << endl;

//Use an IF to dictate the behavior of the program if a>0 and get b
		if (a>0){			
			cout << "\nEnter the length of side b: " << endl;
			cin >> b;
			datafile <<"Side b is: " << b << endl;

//Allow for b<=0
			if (b<=0){
				cout << "\n\nYou have ended the program." << endl;
				datafile << "You have ended the program." << endl;
				break;
			}			

			d=findarea(a,b);

			cout << "\nThe area is: " << d << endl;
			datafile << "The area is: " << d << endl;

//End IF
		}

//Start ELSE to allow output that tells the user they have ended the program
		else {
			cout << "\n\nYou have ended the program." << endl;
			datafile << "You have ended the program." << endl;

//End ELSE 
		}


//End WHILE
	}

//End program
		return 0;

}



double findarea (double q,double r,double s) {
	s=(q*r)/2;
	return s;
}

Any pointers/help would be appreciated.

TIA
Heather

Compare and contrast:

>double findarea (double,double);
>d=findarea(a,b);
>double findarea (double q,double r,double s) {

Be sure to take careful note that the declaration takes two arguments and the definition takes three. C++ treats these as two unique functions that are overloaded to have the same name, therefore the linker is complaining about your not defining the findarea that takes two arguments.

Thanks so much :cheesy: I had a feeling it was something simple I was overlooking. It was driving me bonkers

>I had a feeling it was something simple I was overlooking.
That's not really something simple, so don't feel bad. :) Function overloading problems tend to be incredibly subtle and difficult to find, even for experienced C++ programmers.

Part of my confusion came from the fact I had done a different program set up the same way... prototyped-(double, double) invoked-(a,b) then defined-(double x, double y, double z) for finding the hypotenuse of a right triangle...and it compiled and linked and worked fine for whatever fluke reason. Then we had to make it also do the area and I set it up like I had the hypotenuse function...and the hypotenuse still worked but then the area part errored out. So I pulled the area part of it and made a program just for that....it still errored on the linking...I couldn't figure out why, so that is why I came on here yelling for help. My teacher even said "I can tell you why the area function did NOT work, but I can't explain why the hypotenuse one DID work." Just a fluke thing that for some reason I got away with. So now I know...lol

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