Stuck in an if statement in a while loop

Can anyone spot my error in this loop? After i read in the reply I seem to be stuck in the If statements. Also, putting break in to exit the loop without the condition being true seems to throw an error: "Expected primary expression before else"

Code:

while (rowNum > (FC_Row))
{
    cout << "That row is not located in our first class section. Would you like to change your class so you can sit in that row (Y/N)?" << endl;
    cin >> reply;
    reply = toupper(reply);
    while (reply != 'Y' && reply !='N')
    {
        cin.clear();
        while(cin.get()!='\n');
        cout << "Please indicate your answer with Y (yes) or N (no)." << endl;
        cout << "try again:" << endl;
        cin >> reply;
        reply = toupper(reply);
    }
    if (reply = 'Y')
        ticketType = 'E';
    break; // I want this to exit开发者_StackOverflow中文版 the while loop, I get a syntax error from this break.
    else
        cout << "Then choose a row numbered 1-" << (FC_Row) << endl;
    cin >> rowNum;
}

You need braces, and to replace = with == in the if condition:

if (reply == 'Y')
{
    ticketType = 'E';
    break;
}
else
{
    cout << "Then choose a row numbered 1-" << (FC_Row) << endl;
    cin >> rowNum;
}

You're lacking {} and you're using = where you want ==

if (reply == 'Y') {
      ticketType = 'E';
      break; 
} else {
      cout << "Then choose a row numbered 1-" << (FC_Row) << endl;
      cin >> rowNum;
}

Turn up your compiler warning level, and make sure your code compiles warning-free. The if (reply = 'Y') issue would've been spotted and warned about by most compilers.

if (reply = 'Y')
 {
ticketType = 'E';
break; // I want this to exit the while loop, I get a syntax error from this break.
}
else
{
cout << "Then choose a row numbered 1-" << (FC_Row) << endl;
 cin >> rowNum;
}

You need curly brackets around the statements near the 'if'

                    if (reply = 'Y')
                    {
                        ticketType = 'E';
                        break; // I want this to exit the while loop, I get a syntax error from this break.
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        cout << "Then choose a row numbered 1-" << (FC_Row) << endl;
                        cin >> rowNum;
                    }

What do you think if (reply = 'Y') means? If you're not sure, think about what reply = 'Y' means, then consider that it means the same thing inside an if.

You are doing

if (reply = 'Y') //Should be reply=='Y'
ticketType = 'E';

reply='Y' would always going to be true thus you would always enter in if () condition body.

 if (reply = 'Y') //assignment

This is doing assignment in if. Make it ==.

if (reply == 'Y') //comparison!

I can see three problems with your code.

First off, you're using if (reply = 'y'). = is the assignment operator in C++, not the comparison operator. You want if (reply == 'y').

Second, your indentation and braces are screwed up. Remember that the correct form is this:

if (condition)
{
    // Stuff
}

Unless you're only doing one thing inside the statement (which you're not).

Third, you have a semicolon in while(cin.get()!='\n');. Kill it. You should only have a semicolon after while if it is part of a do while loop.

A good trick to avoid the = when you want == error and you compare to a literal constant is to invert the expression to

'Y' == reply

If you use only = it will give a compile error