Thread: Help with removing element from an array

Hello all, I'm having a problem with my program. I posted and received help with this before, but I've got a different problem now. The old code imported a number of lines of text into an array, next choose a random number of the lines, then randomly choose which lines to put into another array.
Now instead of randomly choosing the number of text lines, I wish to use a predefined number, which I called MAX_NUM. I also want to keep a total count of rand_array_num, which I have called total_array_num. Now the part I'm having trouble with is that total_array_num must never be greater than MAX_NUM. Less than or equal to is fine.
What seems to be happening is, so long as total_array_num is less or equal to MAX_NUM, the loop will happen, even if that makes total_array_num greater than MAX_NUM.
I tried to fix the problem by including an if(total_array_num>MAX_NUM) to subtract rand_text_count by 1, in order to remove the last elements in both arrays. This partially works; the last record is erased, however after this total_array_num is still greater than MAX_NUM.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <time.h>

#define ARRAY_SIZE 10
#define INPUT_TEXT_LENGTH 120
#define MAX_NUM 10

int dieroll(int small, int large);

int main()
{
   FILE *myfile;
   char input_text[INPUT_TEXT_LENGTH]; // input entire line from text file
   char *item; // individual string
   int input_text_count=0; // # of lines from text file
   int rand_text_count=0; // # of text lines after choosing random # of text lines
   int initial_array_num[ARRAY_SIZE]; // input only int from text file
   int rand_array_num[ARRAY_SIZE]; // array for randomly chosen initial_array_num
   int total_array_num=0; // total count of rand_array_num
   char initial_array_string[ARRAY_SIZE][ARRAY_SIZE]; // input only string from text file
   char rand_array_string[ARRAY_SIZE][ARRAY_SIZE]; // array for randomly chosen initial_array_string
   int y,x; //used in 'for' loops
   //int first_roll=0;  randomly choose number of text lines (in this case 1d6)
   int second_roll=0; // randomly choose which text lines
   int numbers[ARRAY_SIZE];

   srand((unsigned)time(NULL));

//open file, fill array, close file
   myfile=fopen("C:\\Users\\eric\\Desktop\\c_code\\number_exp.txt","r");
   if(!myfile)// check to see if an error occurs trying to open file
   {
      puts("number_exp.txt not found!");
      return (1);
   }
   while(fgets(input_text,120,myfile))
   {
      //printf("%s",input_text);
      item=strtok(input_text," "); // name of the text string must be first
      initial_array_num[input_text_count]=atoi(item);

      item=strtok(NULL," "); // NULL must be every one after the first
      strcpy(initial_array_string[input_text_count],item);

      input_text_count++;
   }
   fclose(myfile);

   printf("MAX_NUM is: %d\n",MAX_NUM);
   //first_roll=dieroll(0,6)+1;  choose number of text lines

   for(y=0;y<input_text_count;y++)// initialize the array
    numbers[y]=0;

// choose which lines of text and copy one array into another
 //for(x=0;x<first_roll;x++)

 do
 {
     do
     {
         second_roll=dieroll(0,input_text_count);
     }
     while(numbers[second_roll]);
     numbers[second_roll]=1;

     printf("\ntotal_array_num is: %d\n",total_array_num);
     total_array_num+=(rand_array_num[rand_text_count]=initial_array_num[second_roll]);
     printf("   rand_array_num[rand_text_count] is: %d\n",rand_array_num[rand_text_count]);
     printf("total_array_num is: %d\n",total_array_num);

     strcpy(rand_array_string[rand_text_count],initial_array_string[second_roll]);
     printf("rand_array_string[rand_text_count] is: %s\n",rand_array_string[rand_text_count]);

     rand_text_count++; // increments rand_text_count by 1 for each loop

   if(total_array_num>MAX_NUM)
   {
       rand_text_count--;
       printf("after decrement, total_array_num is: %d\n",total_array_num);
   }
 }
 while(total_array_num<=MAX_NUM);

    for(x=0;x<rand_text_count;x++)
    {
        printf("\n   rand_array_num[rand_text_count] is: %d\n",rand_array_num[x]);
        printf("rand_array_string[rand_text_count] is: %s\n",rand_array_string[x]);
    }
    printf("\ntotal_array_num is: %d\n\n",total_array_num);
    return 0;
}

int dieroll(int small, int large)
{
    large -= small;
    return(rand()%large)+small;
}

/* items in .txt file
1 one
2 two
3 three
4 four
5 five
6 six
7 seven
8 eight
9 nine
10 ten
*/

Thank you, that did the trick. This is just the test program. In my main program I have it separated into three functions. And I shall do a better job of indenting. Though in my code the formatting is fine, somehow when I copy and paste it here the formatting seems to go wrong. Could it be the indenting in my code?

Originally Posted by shaddock

Thank you, that did the trick. This is just the test program. In my main program I have it separated into three functions. And I shall do a better job of indenting. Though in my code the formatting is fine, somehow when I copy and paste it here the formatting seems to go wrong. Could it be the indenting in my code?

Your editor may be using tab characters instead of spaces. I would recommend changing the settings in your editor to replace tabs with 2, 3, 4, or 8 spaces. Then when you copy code to here or any other editor or forum, your formatting will be consistent, or when someone else is maintaining your code. I usually use 4 spaces per tab unless I am editing/maintaining code written by someone else.