Thread: Hangman game

So I made a hangman game but it won't compile...I'm so lost

Code:

#include    <stdio.h>
#include    <string.h>
#include    <ctype.h>


#define MAXWORD    20 //max word length
#define INCORRECT_GUESSES 9 //max # of guesses allowed


/* Prototypes */
void    fill_array( char *theArray, int howMany, char theLetter ); // Fills theArray with howMany copies of theLetter
int     get_letter( char *theWord, char *soFar ); // Get char from player, checks the letter, shows progress so far
int     letter_in_word( char *theWord, char *soFar, char theLetter ); // Check if letter is in word, updates progress so far
void    lower_string( char *someWord ); // Convert the word to lowercase
void    play( char *theWord ); // Play one game




/* Function definitions */


int main( )
{
    char theWord[ MAXWORD ]; //theWord is an array of characters with the length of MAXWORD 
    char *someWord; //the word that will be read from the file


    FILE *ifp = fopen( "guesswords.txt", "r" ); //open myFile to read


    if (ifp == NULL ) //if file doesn't exist
    {
        printf( "File does not exist\n" );


        return -1; //return code
    }


    
    fscanf(ifp, "%s", theWord); //scans word from file
    
    lower_string(someWord); //invokes the function lower_string
    play(theWord); //passing theWord into play function


    fclose(ifp); //closes file


    return 0; //all done
}


/* *********************************************************************** */


void fill_array( char *theArray, int howMany, char theLetter ) // Fills theArray with howMany copies of theLetter
{
    int i;
    for( i = 0; i < howMany; ++i)
    {
        theArray[i] = theLetter;
    }
}


/* *********************************************************************** */


// Get char from player, checks the letter, shows progress so far
int get_letter( char *theWord, char *soFar )
{
    char theLetter;


    printf("Please enter a letter: \n");
    scanf("%c", &theLetter);


    theLetter = tolower(theLetter);


    letter_in_word(theWord, soFar, theLetter);
     
}


/* *********************************************************************** */


int letter_in_word( char *theWord, char *soFar, char theLetter ) // Check if letter is in word, updates progress so far
{
    int i;
    int numberOfMatches;


    for( i = 0; i < strlen(theWord); ++i )
    {
        if (theWord[i] == theLetter)
        {
            soFar[i] = theLetter;
            ++numberOfMatches;
        }


        if (numberOfMatches == 0)
        {
            printf("Oops! The letter you guessed is not in the word!\n");
            return 0; //not found
        }


        else 
        {
            printf("Yay! The letter you guessed is in the word!\n");
            printf("%s", soFar);
            return 1; //1 or more was found
        }
    }


    return numberOfMatches;
}


/* *********************************************************************** */


void lower_string ( char *someWord ) // Convert the word to lowercase
{
    int i;
    for (i = 0; i < strlen(someWord); ++i)
    {
        someWord[i] = tolower(someWord[i]);
    }
}


/* *********************************************************************** */


void play( char *theWord ) // Play one game
{
    char theWord[MAXWORD]; 
    int maxGuesses = INCORRECT_GUESSES;
    char soFar[MAXWORD];
    int result;
    int i;


    fill_array( soFar, strlen(theWord), '*' );


    printf("%s", soFar);


    for (int i = 0; i < INCORRECT_GUESSES; ++i)
    {
        result=get_letter(theWord, soFar);


        if ( result = 0 )
        {
            printf("You have %d more letters to guess! Keep guessing!", i);
        }


        else if ( result = 1 )
        {
            printf("You have guessed all letters! Good job!");
        }


        printf("The word was %c", theWord);


    }
}

// End of program

The first thing to do is compile will maximum warnings.

Code:

main.c||In function 'play':|
main.c|145|error: 'theWord' redeclared as different kind of symbol|
main.c|143|note: previous definition of 'theWord' was here|
main.c|158|error: redeclaration of 'i' with no linkage|
main.c|149|note: previous declaration of 'i' was here|
main.c|158|error: 'for' loop initial declarations are only allowed in C99 mode|
main.c|158|note: use option -std=c99 or -std=gnu99 to compile your code|
main.c|163|warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value|
main.c|169|warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value|
main.c|175|warning: format '%c' expects type 'int', but argument 2 has type 'char *'|
main.c|146|warning: unused variable 'maxGuesses'|
||=== Build finished: 3 errors, 4 warnings ===|

There's no reason to get near 200 lines of code with some of these warnings/errors. (Also note that some of these are self-explanatory.)

Read this (A development process) to see how to build up a program piece by piece, making sure it works each step of the way. Then give it another shot.

Next time, please copy-paste the complete compiler errors/warnings along with line numbers, it's makes our job helping you much easier.

Well, for starters, I would guess your first problem is writing 179 lines of code without ever compiling and testing it. You should work in small chunks. Write 5-10 lines of code at a time, compile it with maximum warning level, and fix all errors and warnings. Then do some simple tests to make sure it works as intended. Then write another 5-10 lines, go through the same process, etc, until you're done.

Here's what I get when I compile:

Code:

cagarvin@cagarvin-goobuntu:~/sandbox/cprogramming$ make foo
gcc -Wall -ggdb3 -pedantic -std=c99 -O0 -o foo foo.c -lm -lpthread -lrt
foo.c: In function ‘play’:
foo.c:145:10: error: ‘theWord’ redeclared as different kind of symbol
foo.c:143:18: note: previous definition of ‘theWord’ was here
foo.c:163:9: warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value [-Wparentheses]
foo.c:169:9: warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value [-Wparentheses]
foo.c:175:9: warning: format ‘%c’ expects argument of type ‘int’, but argument 2 has type ‘char *’ [-Wformat]
foo.c:149:9: warning: unused variable ‘i’ [-Wunused-variable]
foo.c:146:9: warning: unused variable ‘maxGuesses’ [-Wunused-variable]
foo.c: In function ‘get_letter’:
foo.c:86:1: warning: control reaches end of non-void function [-Wreturn-type]
make: *** [foo] Error 1

To fix those problems

• In play(), you have a parameter named theWord, and a local variable named theWord. You can't do that, they're two different entities, so they would need two different names. Though I suspect you can do without the local variable entirely, and just use the parameter version.
• One = is for assignment, two == is for comparison.
• %c is for printing a single char. If you want to print a string, you need %s. Refer to the printf documentation for more info.
• Remove the unused variables
• get_letter is supposed to return an int, so return one, or change the function to return void.

Other problems:

• scanf with %c will read the guesses the user types in, but also the newline everytime they press enter. See this FAQ article for ideas: FAQ > How do I avoid a "dangling" newline when reading single character user input? - Cprogramming.com.
• Avoid using strlen in your loop conditions. That calls strlen every time, which is inefficient. Use a temporary variable instead (see below), or check for the null terminator as your stopping condition
• Are you using someWord or theWord in main? If you want to use someWord, you can't just have a char *, you must actually have room to store the string. I think you can remove someWord and only use theWord.

There's maybe more problems, but that should cover it for now. Oh yeah, the example:

Code:

for (int i = 0; theWord[i] != '\0'; i++)
// or
int len = strlen(theWord);
for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)