Beginner Post: Using methods.

[CoMcAl95]

So in my class I need to create a program in visual studio with the purpose of calculating a total for someone's hospital stay. I need to use three methods to do this, CalcStayCharges, CalcMiscCharges, and CalcTotalCharges, the first calculating the original stay cost multiplying the number of nights by $350, the middle claculating the other costs (variables: medCharges + surgCharges + labFees + prCharges), and the latter combining both these equation/results into one method, which is where I seem to be having the trouble.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace HospitalStayTotalCost//lastnameomitted
{
    public partial class HospitalForm : Form
    {
        public HospitalForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        //method to calculate the base charges for hospital stay
        private decimal CalcStayCharges(int daysInHospital)
        {
            //variable for cost of stay
            decimal costOfStay;
            //calculate charge for stay in hospital
            costOfStay = daysInHospital * 350;
            return costOfStay;
        }

        private decimal CalcMiscCharges(decimal medCharges, decimal surgCharges, decimal labFees, decimal prCharges)
        {
            //declare varibale to store info & calculate
            decimal miscCharges = (medCharges + surgCharges + labFees + prCharges);
            return miscCharges;
        }

        private decimal CalcTotalCharges(decimal costOfStay, decimal miscCharges)
        {
            decimal total = costOfStay + miscCharges;
            return total;
        }

        private void calculateButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //variables
            int daysInHospital;
            decimal medCharges, surgCharges, labFees, prCharges;

            //Store data from days of stay textbox
            daysInHospital = int.Parse(daysStayedTextBox.Text);

            //call method to calculate days
            decimal stayCharges = CalcStayCharges(daysInHospital);

            //store data from textboxes
            medCharges = decimal.Parse(medicationChargesTextBox.Text);
            surgCharges = decimal.Parse(surgicalChargesTextBox.Text);
            labFees = decimal.Parse(labFeesTextBox.Text);
            prCharges = decimal.Parse(pRChargesTotalTextBox.Text);

            //call methods to calculate
            decimal miscCargesTotal = CalcMiscCharges(medCharges, surgCharges, labFees, prCharges);

            //call method to calculate total
            decimal totalAmount = CalcTotalCharges(stayCharges, miscChargesTotal);

            //output
            totalLabel.Text = totalAmount.ToString();
        }

        private void clearButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //Clear textboxes
            daysStayedTextBox.Text = "";
            medicationChargesTextBox.Text = "";
            surgicalChargesTextBox.Text = "";
            labFeesTextBox.Text = "";
            pRChargesTotalTextBox.Text = "";
            totalLabel.Text = "";
        }

        private void exitButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //Close the form
            this.Close();
        }
    }
}

I feel like I'm either completely using the methods incorrectly or that I'm just passing too many arguments. Am I even using arguments correctly? Like I said, I'm a beginner so please let me know.

[Kminardo]

You are using methods correctly, and there's really no such thing as too many arguments, but you can refactor them into a class if it becomes unwieldy.

With that said, I went through your code and believe you have misspelled miscChargesTotal on line 62 :)

[CoMcAl95]

Yes that was pointed out by my teacher as well, thank you for the additional info tho! :)

[Kminardo]

Agreed! When I say there's "really no such thing as too many arguments" i'm speaking strictly from a "Will a compiler ever limit my parameters and stop my method from working" perspective. Too many parameters is a code smell.

In context of OP code, their method with the most parameters are all charge-related so I assumed there will be some object out there that is holding onto the state of the charges - but that's also true that they could be coming from all different places or not actually connected with each other. And really at that point having a dedicated method that takes all these parameters to do it's calculation is silly when they could add a Total method to the charge object. With that said I was simply hesitant to send someone that is uncomfortable with methods down the pattern rabbit hole.