Thread: self-taught newbie searching for help

Hello everyone,
I have been trying to learn C and C++ programming for a while now, by watching youtube tutorials mostly. Recently, i came across a crossword tutorial to be completed in C and I am not sure what i am doing wrong.
Firstly, i have to say that the info wasn't very clear on what the user was required to do. Most of the code was given and to be completed/corrected by the C programmer, so i added a main menu to make it easier to follow, with the following options: 1. Start a New Puzzle, 2. Solve the Puzzle and 3. Exit.
I managed (i think to have option 2 and 3 to work (almost) as expected but i can't get a new puzzle to start.
Also, the putHorizontalWord section of the code works (it was given) but inverting

Code:

[rRow][rCol + i]

to

Code:

[rRow + i][rCol]

or

Code:

[rRow + i][rCol + i]

does not work for vertical and diagonal words
What am i doing wrong?

Code:

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

#define ROWS 10
#define COLUMNS 10

char puzzle[ROWS][COLUMNS];

char allWords[20][10] = {"GIRL" , "BOY" , "SHIP" , "CAT" , "FOG" , "KITE" , "BAG" , "STAMP" , "ZOOM" , "JOY", "CAR" , "BUS" , "VAN" , "BOAT" , "BIKE" , "TURBO" , "SCHOOL" , "DOVIC" , "VIRUS" , "STAR"};

char fourWords[4][10];

char getRandomCharacter(void)
{
    int r = (rand() % 26) + 65;
    return (char)r;

}

void getFourRandomWords(void) {
    int draws[4];
    // draw 4 words from the list, no duplicates
    for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        int n = rand() % (20 - i);
        int j;
        for (j = 4 - i; j < 4 && n >= draws[j]; j++) {
            draws[j - 1] = draws[j];
            n++;
        }
        draws[j - 1] = n;
        strcpy(fourWords[i], allWords[n]);
    }
}

void createBlankPuzzle()
{
    int i , j;

    for(i=0; i<ROWS; i++)
    {
        for(j=0; j<COLUMNS; j++)
        {
            puzzle [i][j] = '*';
        }
    }
}

void createNewPuzzle()
{
    int i , j;

    for(i=0; i<ROWS; i++)
    {
        for(j=0; j<COLUMNS; j++)
        {
            puzzle [i][j] = getRandomCharacter();
        }
    }
}

void displayPuzzel()
{
    int i , j , rowNum = 0;
    char x = 'A';

    // First display column names
    printf("  ");
    for(i=0; i<COLUMNS; i++)
    {
        printf("%c ",x + i);
    }
    printf("\n");

    for(i = 0;i < ROWS;i++)
    {
        printf("%d ",rowNum);
        rowNum++;
        for(j=0; j<COLUMNS; j++)
        {
            printf("%c ",puzzle[i][j]);
        }
        printf("\n");
    }
}

void putHorizzontalWord(char word[10])
{
    int rRow, rCol , ok , i;

    do
    {
        rRow = rand() % 10;
        rCol = rand() % 10;

        ok = 1;
        if(rCol + strlen(word) < 10)
        {
            for(i = 0;i < strlen(word);i++)
            {
                if(puzzle[rRow][rCol + i] == '*' ||
                    puzzle[rRow][rCol + i] == word[i])
                {
                    puzzle[rRow][rCol + i] = word[i];
                }
                else
                {
                    ok = 0;
                }
            }
        }
        else
        {
            ok = 0;
        }
    }
    while(ok == 0);
}

void putVerticalWord(char word[10]) //this, doesn't seem to work'
{
    int rRow, rCol , ok , i;

    do
    {
        rRow = rand() % 10;
        rCol = rand() % 10;

        ok = 1;
        if(rRow + strlen(word) < 10)
        {
            for(i = 0;i < strlen(word);i++)
            {
                if(puzzle[rRow + i][rCol] == '*' ||
                    puzzle[rRow + i][rCol] == word[i])
                {
                    puzzle[rRow + i][rCol] = word[i];
                }
                else
                {
                    ok = 0;
                }
            }
        }
        else
        {
            ok = 0;
        }
    }
    while(ok == 0);
}

void putDiagonalWord(char word[10]) //this, doesn't seem to work'
{
    int rRow, rCol , ok , i;

    do
    {
        rRow = rand() % 10;
        rCol = rand() % 10;

        ok = 1;
        if(rRow + strlen(word) < 10)
        {
            for(i = 0;i < strlen(word);i++)
            {
                if(puzzle[rRow + i][rCol + i] == '*' ||
                    puzzle[rRow + i][rCol + i] == word[i])
                {
                    puzzle[rRow + i][rCol + i] = word[i];
                }
                else
                {
                    ok = 0;
                }
            }
        }
        else
        {
            ok = 0;
        }
    }
    while(ok == 0);
}

void fillPuzzleWithWords()
{
    int i , orientation;
    getFourRandomWords();

    for(i=0; i<4; i++)
    {
        orientation = 0; //rand() % 3; // To generate a random number from 0, 1, & 2
        if(orientation == 0)
        {
            putHorizzontalWord(fourWords[i]);
        }
        else if(orientation == 1)
        {
            putVerticalWord(fourWords[i]);
        }
        else
        {
            // put word diagonal
        }
    }
}

void mainMenu()
{
    char menuChoice;
    do
    {
        printf("------------------------");
        printf("\nUse coordinate to solve\nthe puzzle; i.e. C3, G3\n");
        printf("------------------------");
        printf("\n~~~ DAILY CROSSWORD ~~~\n");
        printf("1. New game\n");
        printf("2. Solve Puzzle\n");
        printf("3. Exit\n");
        menuChoice = getchar();

        switch (menuChoice)
        {
            case '1': createNewPuzzle(); break;
            case '2': displayPuzzel(); break;
        }

    } while (menuChoice != '3');
}

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

    createBlankPuzzle();
    displayPuzzel();
    fillPuzzleWithWords();

    mainMenu();
    getchar();

    printf("Thank you for playing today! :)\nGood Bye");
    return 0;
}

Any help would be highly appreciated!

p.s.: i am using KDevelop on a Linux machine and a lot of commands, apparently, accepted on VSCode, show as building error in KDevelop i.e.: gets instead of fget(name, size, stdin) and scanf_s instead of scanf

You need to check whether the word will fully fit before modifying the puzzle, otherwise you will get partially-inserted words.