Date checking in C++

[j-balkovec]

Body

Hi,

I am working on my CovidDB assignment which involves making a hash table from scratch. For this assignment I don't have any limitations/restrictions, I can use whichever library or container from the STL.

My DataEntry class consists of:

/**
 * @brief DataEntry class represents a single entry of COVID-19 data 
 *        for a particular date and country.
 * @class DataEntry
 * @note This class is immutable once created.
*/
class DataEntry final {
  private:
    std::string date;
    std::string country;
    int c_cases;
    int c_deaths;

  public:
    DataEntry();

    /** @note mutators and acessors*/

    inline void set_date(std::string set_date) { this->date = set_date;};
    inline void set_country(std::string set_country) { this->country = set_country;};
    inline void set_c_deaths(int set_c_deaths) { this->c_deaths = set_c_deaths;};
    inline void set_c_cases(int set_c_cases) { this->c_cases = set_c_cases;};

    inline int get_c_cases() { return c_cases;};
    inline int get_c_deaths() { return c_deaths;};

    inline std::string get_date() { return date;};
    inline std::string get_country() { return country;};  
    bool read_file();  
};

and my CovidDB class

/**
 * @brief A hash table implementation to store Covid-19 data by country
 * @class CovidDB
 * @note The hash table size is fixed at 17.
 */
class CovidDB final {
  private:
    int size = 17;
    int key; //country
    std::vector<std::vector<DataEntry*>> HashTable;

  public:
    inline CovidDB() {
        HashTable.resize(size);
    }
    inline ~CovidDB() {
      for (auto& row : HashTable) {
        row.clear();
      }
      HashTable.clear();
      }

    DataEntry get(std::string country);
    bool add(DataEntry* entry);
    bool read_country_file();
    int hash(std::string country);
    void remove(std::string country);
    void display_table(); 
}; 

One of my methods in my CovidDB class [add] check if the current_date is less than the entered date, if so the method should reject the entry. Here is what I got so far:

bool CovidDB::add(DataEntry* entry) {
    time_t now = time(0);
    tm* ltm = localtime(&now);
    std::string current_date = std::to_string(1 + ltm -> tm_mon) + "/" + std::to_string(ltm -> tm_mday) + "/" + std::to_string(1900 + ltm -> tm_year);

    std::cout << "Current date: " <<current_date << std::endl;
    if (entry->get_date() > current_date) {
        std::cout << "\n[Record rejectd]\n" << std::endl;
        return false;
    }

    int index = hash(entry->get_country());

    if (HashTable[index].empty()) {
        HashTable[index].push_back(new DataEntry(*entry));
    } else {
        for (DataEntry* existing_entry : HashTable[index]) {
            if (existing_entry->get_country() == entry -> get_country()) {
                *existing_entry = *entry;
                return true;
            }
        }
        HashTable[index].push_back(new DataEntry(*entry));
    }

    return true;
}

For some reason, when I call the function in main the record is not being rejected, but its being added.

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
  std::cout << "\n\n";
  CovidDB b;

  // Create a DataEntry object with required fields
  DataEntry *entry = new DataEntry;
  entry -> set_country("USA");
  entry -> set_date("05/16/2023");
  entry -> set_c_cases(1000);
  entry -> set_c_deaths(500);


  // Add the entry to the hash table
  b.add(entry);

  std::cout << "Hash Key: " << b.hash("Afghanistan") << std::endl;
  std::cout << "Displaying hashTable:\n\n";
  b.display_table();
  
  std::cout << "\n\n";
  return 0;
}

Can someone tell me what I did wrong, and if there is any other approach to compare dates. The date is in the format of mm/dd/yyyy
Thank you.

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