turn user input into scramble

[jessicacates]

I need to take user input of a word and make the word scrambled for however long it is. so if it was 4 letters 4 scrambles, 5 letters 5 scrambles... etc.

here is what i have so far

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int mix(string thing);

int main()
{
    string word;
	int wait;
    cout << "Enter Something [< 5 Letters (faster)]\n";
    cin >> word;
    mix (word);
        cin >> wait;
}

int mix(string thing)
{
	int l = thing.length();
	int hold, taken[l];
	string scramble = "";

	cout << "Please Wait ";

	for (int i(1); i <= l; i++)
	{
		taken[i] = 0;
	}
	for (int q(1); q <= l; q++)
	{
		while (true)
		{
			srand((unsigned)time(NULL));
			hold = (rand() % (l)) + 0;

			if (taken[hold] == 0)
			{
				scramble += thing[hold];
				taken[hold] = 1;
				cout << ".";
				break;
			}
		}
	}
	cout << "\n" << scramble;
}

[2kaud]

int hold, taken[l];

With c++, the size of an array has to be known to the compiler at compile time. So the size of an array can't be set using a variable whose value is only known at run-time.

You can however, do this

vector<int> taken(l, 0);

Which sets taken to a length of l with each element initialised to 0. See http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/v...vector/vector/

Also you would usually only use srand() once at the beginning of a program - as it just seeds the random number generator.

[2kaud]

You actually don't need taken. If scramble is defined as

string scramble(l, 0);

then scramble can be directly indexed.

for (int i(1); i <= l; i++)
	{
		taken[i] = 0;
	}

Note that this is not correct. An array index starts at 0 and its largest value is one less than the number of elements in the array. So if taken is an array with l elements, then

for (int i(0); i < l; i++)
		taken[i] = 0;

[jessicacates]

here is the function that i have for this and i still cant seem to get it to work, nor do i know what i would need to call inside my main

unsigned int scramble(string word)
{
	int l = word.length();
	int hold, taken[l];
	string scramble = "";

	cout << "Please Wait ";

	for (int i(0); i < l; i++)
	{
		taken[i] = 0;
	}
	for (int q(1); q <= l; q++)
	{
		while (true)
		{
			srand((unsigned)time(NULL));
			hold = (rand() % (l)) + 0;

			if (taken[hold] == 0)
			{
				scramble += scramble[hold];
				taken[hold] = 1;
				cout << ".";
				break;
			}
		}
	}
	//cout << endl << scramble;
}

[2kaud]

Did you read and understand any of my comments in post #2 as apart from name changes, the code in post #6 is the same as that in post #1

[jessicacates]

i sort of understand it, i realized i copy-pasted the wrong thing.
Does this look right?

unsigned int scramble(string word)
{
	int l = word.length();
	string scramble(l, 0);
	string scramble = "";
	unsigned int hold = 0;

	cout << "Please Wait ";

	for (int i(0); i < l; i++)
	{
		scramble [i] = 0;
	}
	for (int q(1); q <= l; q++)
	{
		while (true)
		{
			srand((unsigned)time(NULL));
			hold = (rand() % (l)) + 0;

			if (scramble[hold] == 0)
			{
				scramble += scramble[hold];
				scramble[hold] = 1;
				cout << ".";
				break;
			}
		}
	}
	cout << endl << scramble;
}

[2kaud]

No. You don't need

string scramble = "";

as scramble has been defined above.

You don't need

for (int i(0); i < l; i++)
	{
		scramble [i] = 0;
	}

as the definition of scramble assigns 0 to each element.

srand((unsigned)time(NULL));

This should be done only once usually at the start of main()

If scramble[hold] is not 0 then the character from word can be placed direct into the element.

for (int q(1); q <= l; q++)

As the first index of a string is 0, q should be set to 0 and not 1. Also the last element is one less than the number of elements the condition should be less than.

[jessicacates]

okay awesome on the line I'm getting an error saying that it needs to be a pointer to type, does this mean I need to change it to a string?

int l = word.length();

[2kaud]

That statement looks OK. It must be something else that is causing an error.

[jessicacates]

here's the code for the scramble, it isn't working still and I'm not sure why it isn't since you said the line was correct

unsigned int scramble(unsigned int palword)
{
	string palword;
	int l = palword.size();
	string scramble(l, 0);
	unsigned int hold = 0;

	cout << "Please Wait ";

	for (int q(1); q <= l; q++)
	{
		while (true)
		{
			srand((unsigned)time(NULL));
			hold = (rand() % (l)) + 0;

			if (scramble[hold] == 0)
			{
				scramble += scramble[hold];
				scramble[hold] = 1;
				cout << ".";
				break;
			}
		}
	}
	cout << endl << scramble;
	return palword;
}

heres the call in the main

cout << "enter in a word to get scrambled" << endl;
	cin >> palword;
	unsigned int scramble(palword);
	cout << "Scrambles of word is: " << palword << endl;

[2kaud]

unsigned int scramble(unsigned int palword)
{
	string palword;

If you want to return the scrambled word then the function definition should be

string scramble(const string& palword)
{
   int l = palword.size;

palword is the string passed to the function to scramble so it needs to be of type string and not re-defined with the function.

[2kaud]

You're probably suffered enough over this. Consider

string scramble(const string& word)
{
	srand((unsigned)time(NULL));

	const int l = word.length();
	string scramble(l, 0);

	cout << "Please Wait ";

	for (int i = 0, hold = 0; i < l; ++i) {
		while (scramble[(hold = (rand() % l))]);
		scramble[hold] = word[i];
	}

	cout << endl << scramble << endl;
	return scramble;
}

cout << "enter in a word to get scrambled" << endl;
cin >> palword;
cout << "Scramble of " << palword << " is: " << scramble(palword) << endl;

Try to understand the code.

[jessicacates]

i cannot thank you enough for all of the help you've given me!!

[jessicacates]

for the code you gave me, could i make it scramble a word more then once by adding a loop?

[2kaud]

I would suggest you put the loop around the call. Consider

cout << "enter in a word to get scrambled" << endl;
cin >> palword;

for (int s = 0; s < 5; ++s)
    cout << "Scramble of " << palword << " is: " << scramble(palword) << endl;