% vs. / beginner question

kinda new here...hello all!
Anyway i am using the book c++ without fear to learn c++ and so far it is working well but, i came across something in one of the exercises. Basically, the point of the code is to pick a random item (ball or a cube) of a random color (red, blue, green or orange). The book is trying to teach me how to set up a code so it only calls the random number generator once to select one of the 8 possibilties ( a cube of 1 of the 4 colors or a ball of 1 of the 4 colors).

Now here is the part of the code i am intrested in...the book has:

Code:

// Draw-an-item function
// Performs one item-pick by getting a random 0-4 and a random
//  0-1. These are then used to index the string arrays, colors
//  and shapes
//
void draw_an_item() {
    int c;         // Random index (0 thru 4) into colors array
    int s;         // Random index (0 thru 1) into shapes array
    int item;

    item = rand_0toN1(8);    // Get random number from 0 to 7
    c = item % 4;            // c = random 0 to 3
    s = item / 4;            // s = random 0 to 1
    cout << colors[c] << " " << shapes[s] << endl;
}

Here is what I have ( i have different variables...sorry about that)

Code:

void draw_an_item()
{
     int i;
     int c;
     int shape;
     
     shape = rand_0toN1(8);
     
     i = shape % 2;
     c = shape % 4;
     cout << item[i] << " of " << color[c] << endl;
}

is there any difference from the books using:

Code:

s = item / 4;            // s = random 0 to 1

vs my using

Code:

  i = shape % 2;

They both produce an answer that is between 0 and , so i dont think it matters, but i am sure you all know better.

Thanks!
~Rokraja

Well using shape % 2; means you only end up with red balls or blue cubes (for example).

In case of

Code:

item/4

you get result 0 for item 0-3 and result 1 for item 4-7. In case of

Code:

item%2

you get result 0 for item 0,2,4,6 and result 1 for item 1,3,5,7. Therefore final output is different in both cases.

I would also suggest to do some reading on modulo.