Classes, and constructors and instance variables . . . oh my!

Question

wow, I am really struggling with the stuff we are doing in class for the last few days. I am going to post our assignment and point out specific things I don't understand. I don't understand some of the syntax and the overall logical flow of how parameters get passed back and forth, etc. I have been over our book and class examples and I am still confused.
Here is one part of the assignment:
"Create two instances of the MyDate class named begDate and endDate, by using the MyDate constructor after having prompted the user
3 times for each date for values of a valid month, day, and year."
Q: how do I create two instances using the constructor?
(from our assignment) "Within the MyDate class:
     Include three private int variables, named month, day, and year.
     Include a constructor that sets (sets them to what?!) the values of month, day, and year."
here is what I have:
public class MyDate {
     private int month, day, year;
     public MyDate (int month, int day, int year){
          month = 0;
          day = 0;
          year = 0;
     }//MyDate Constructor(from our assignment) "Create two instances of the MyDate class named begDate and endDate, by using the MyDate constructor after having prompted the user 3 times for each date for values of a valid month, day, and year."
and here is what I have in the executable class (it isn't much because I already have an error; it says I can't convert String to MyDate):
public static void main(String[] args) {
          MyDate begDate = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("beg. month?");
     }I guess I don't know how to use the constructor correctly. Sorry, but I have tried to make this as clear as possible.

Answer 1

I will give you a start:
public static void main(String[] args) {
          MyDate begDate new MyDate(JOptionPane.showInputDialog("beg. month?"), JOptionPane.showInputDialog("beg. day?"), JOptionPane.showInputDialog("beg. year?"));
public class MyDate {
     private int month, day, year;
     public MyDate (int month, int day, int year){
          this.month = month;
          this.day = day;
          this.year = year;
     }//MyDate Constructor
/code]
Haven't tested it, maybe made some type mismatches, but at leasy try this one