How to get random words

[clankman]

I am making a hangman game, and I need to know how to get a word (from a list of words) that is randomly selected.

I also need to know where to put/make the list of words.

[v0id]

First you need to generate the number, which is the hardest part of what you're seeking. Next, it would be the easiest to use an vector, which also have good facilities for adding new words.

I'm unable to make a complete example for you at the moment, but if I get the time, I can make a working example - but first in next week, sorry.

[NoName]

One way to do it is have the list stored in a basic array something like this (i am using the string class but you could do this with a 2 dimensional array but thats a pain so if you do it like this you need to #include<string>)

string words[] = {"cat","dog","door","moon"};

then to pick one at random (you need to #include<ctime>)

//This is used to seed the random sequence generated by rand()
	srand(time(NULL));
	//Use the %4 to keep the random number between 0-4
	cout << words[rand()%4] << endl;

[clankman]

Your code seemed to work (not 100% sure if it did, but didn't get any errors). Just a question or two about it.

Does putting %4 in there make it so the biggest a word can be is four letters?

Also, is there a limit to the amount of words I can enter in the string?

[NoName]

the %4 all it does is make it so the random number is only going to be 0,1,2, or 3 it has nothing to do with the length of the word

[NoName]

Here is a full example that will load the words from a file and then keep them in a vector

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <ctime>

using std::cout;
using std::fstream;
using std::string;
using std::vector;

bool loadWords(char *,vector<string> &);

int main()
{
	srand(time(NULL));

	vector<string> wordList;
	if(loadWords("C:\\wordFile.txt",wordList))
	{
		cout << "5 Random words from the file\n";
		for(int i=0; i<5; i++)
			cout << wordList.at(rand() % wordList.size()) << '\n';
	}
	else
		cout << "There was an error opening the file\n";

	return 0;
}

bool loadWords(char * fileName,vector<string> & words)
{
	fstream file(fileName,std::ios::in);
	char buffer[30];

	if(file.is_open())
	{
		words.clear();
		while(!file.eof())
		{
			file.getline(buffer,30);
			words.push_back(buffer);
		}
		file.close();
		return true;
	}
	else
		return false;

}

[v0id]

As I said, I will come with a full example.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <cassert>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <ctime>

void Wait(int iTime)
{
	clock_t End;
	End = clock () + iTime;
	while(clock() < End);
}

void AddWord(std::vector<std::string> &vList, std::string sWord)
{
	std::cout << " - Adding ... \"" << sWord << "\"" << std::endl;
	vList.push_back(sWord);
}

std::string GetWord(std::vector<std::string> vList, unsigned int iIndex)
{
	return vList.at(iIndex);
}

int GetRandom(int iMax)
{
	int iRandom;
	
	Wait(100);
	
	srand(static_cast<unsigned int>(time(NULL) * clock()));
	iRandom = (rand() / (RAND_MAX / iMax + 1));
	
	return iRandom;
}

int main()
{
	int iSize;
	int iRandom;
	std::string sWord;
	std::vector<std::string> vWords;
	
	std::cout << "Adding 10 words to the list" << std::endl;
	AddWord(vWords, "Book");
	AddWord(vWords, "Wall");
	AddWord(vWords, "Computer");
	AddWord(vWords, "Calculator");
	AddWord(vWords, "Television");
	AddWord(vWords, "Bed");
	AddWord(vWords, "Flower");
	AddWord(vWords, "Chair");
	AddWord(vWords, "Table");
	AddWord(vWords, "Cup");
	
	assert(vWords.size() == 10);
	
	std::cout << std::endl;	
	std::cout << "Generating 5 random words from the list" << std::endl;
	for(unsigned int iIndex = 0; iIndex < 5; iIndex++)
	{
		iSize   = vWords.size();
		iRandom = GetRandom(iSize);
		sWord   = GetWord(vWords, iRandom);
		
		std::cout << " - Returned ... \"" << sWord << "\"" << std::endl;
	}
	
	return 0;
}

Note the GetRandom and Wait-functions. In GetRandom I'm using the time to get a random number, but most computers nowadays are so fast that the application would run too fast, so time couldn't change from call to call. So we need a Wait-function which does it for us. I'm using std::vector and std::string which is the easiest to work with.