random sentence generator

I've been working on a program over the last few days that asks to create an array of pointers to char called article noun verb and preposition. Basically I need to create random sentences in the format article noun verb preposition article noun verb. The sentences need to start with a capital letter and end with a period.

It sounded pretty simple at first but I seem to be getting lost in how to generate random sentences where the pointers have different rows and collums. There is nothiong similar to this in my book. This s what I have so far, any "pointers" would be greatly appreciated! (bet you haven't heard that on before. :D )

Code:

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


void sentenceGenerator(  char article[],  char noun[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] );

int main()
{
        const char *article[5]=    { "the", "a", "one", "some", "any",  };
        const char *noun[5]=      { "boy", "girl", "dog", "town", "car", };
        const char *verb[5]=      { "drove","jumped", "ran", "walked", "skipped", };
        const char *preposition[5]={ "to", "from", "over", "under", "on",  };
        int i;

   
        for ( i = 0; i < 6; i++ );
       
                *( artical)    = i;
                *( noun)        = i;
                *( verb)        = i;
                *( preposition) = i;

      srand( time( 0 ) );

      void sentenceGenerator( artical, noun, verb, preposition, artical, noun )

    }
}

void sentenceGenerator(  char article[],  char noun[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] )
{

        int i;
        for (i = 0; i <20; i++)
        {
                printf( "%s%s%s%s%s%s.\n", *article, *noun, *verb, *preposition, *article, *noun );
        }
}

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Code:

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        for ( i = 0; i < 6; i++ );<<<do-nothing loop because of trailing semicolon
       
                *( artical)    = i;What is this supposed to do ????
                *( noun)        = i;
        *( verb)        = i;
                *( preposition) = i;

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Code:

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printf( "%s%s%s%s%s%s.\n", *article, *noun, *verb, *preposition, *article, *noun );

---

The above will always print the same thing on each iteration. Remove the stars because *article is only one character but the format string %s expects a null-terminated string.

My intent on the for loop was to initialize the four arrays of pointers.

in my prototype, its giving me errors because of "redefinition" in "article" and "noun"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jsbeckton

in my prototype, its giving me errors because of "redefinition" in "article" and "noun"

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Because you have used the same variable name for two separate parameters:

Code:

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void sentenceGenerator(  char article[],  char noun[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] );

---

Also, check your spelling of article in main().

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jsbeckton

My intent on the for loop was to initialize the four arrays of pointers.

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the arrays are already initialized when declared. No need for further initialization.

[QUOTE=cwr]Because you have used the same variable name for two separate parameters:

Code:

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void sentenceGenerator(  char article[],  char noun[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] );

---

My alogarithm will need to use the article and noun pointer arrays twice.

I removed the initializers and modified the pointer arrays to include additional article and noun pointer arrays, however it seems that there must be another way to use those pointer arrays twice.

updated code:

Code:

---

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


void sentenceGenerator(  char article1[],  char noun1[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] );

int main()
{
    const char *article1[5]=    { "the", "a", "one", "some", "any",  };
        const char *noun1[5]=      { "boy", "girl", "dog", "town", "car", };
        const char *article[5]=    { "the", "a", "one", "some", "any",  };
        const char *noun[5]=      { "boy", "girl", "dog", "town", "car", };
        const char *verb[5]=      { "drove","jumped", "ran", "walked", "skipped", };
        const char *preposition[5]={ "to", "from", "over", "under", "on",  };
    int i;

   
       

      srand( time( 0 ) );

      void sentenceGenerator( article, noun, verb, preposition, artical, noun )

    }
}

void sentenceGenerator(  char article[],  char noun[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] )
{
    int i;
       
        for (i = 0; i <20; i++)
        {
       
                printf( "%s%s%s%s%s%s\n", article1, noun1, verb, preposition, article, noun );
        }
}

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jsbeckton

My alogarithm will need to use the article and noun pointer arrays twice.

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Perhaps your alogarithm needs to use separate indices?

Your declaration is now:

Code:

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void sentenceGenerator(  char article1[],  char noun1[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] );

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Your function definition now begins with:

Code:

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void sentenceGenerator(  char article[],  char noun[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] )

---

These don't match.

Hint: only the definition needs to contain the names of the parameters, the declaration can just contain the types.

Just made some changes, down to one error but cant remove on of the "}" w/o a bunch of errors?

Code:

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

void sentenceGenerator(  char ,  char ,  char , char , char ,  char  );
                                         

int main()
{
 
        const char *article[5]=    { "the", "a", "one", "some", "any",  };
        const char *noun[5]=      { "boy", "girl", "dog", "town", "car", };
        const char *verb[5]=      { "drove","jumped", "ran", "walked", "skipped", };
        const char *preposition[5]={ "to", "from", "over", "under", "on",  };
 

   
       
       
     

      void sentenceGenerator( article, noun, verb, preposition, artical, noun );
      return 0;
}
}

void sentenceGenerator(  char article[],  char noun[],  char verb[],
                                            char preposition[], char article[],  char noun[] )
{
    int i;
       
        for (i = 0; i <20; i++)
        {
       
                printf( "%s%s%s%s%s%s\n", rand(article), rand(noun),  rand(verb++), rand(preposition++),
                        rand(article++), rand(noun++) );
        }
}

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You probably get an error because you have an 'artical' in there :p

made some changes and built what I believe is a random seed generator , only a few errors now but still wont compile.

Code:

---

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

void sentenceGenerator(  char **article,  char **noun,  char **verb,
      char **preposition, char **article2,  char **noun2 );                               
int main()
{
 
        char *article[5]=    { "the", "a", "one", "some", "any",  };
        char *noun[5]=      { "boy", "girl", "dog", "town", "car", };
        char *verb[5]=      { "drove","jumped", "ran", "walked", "skipped", };
        char *preposition[5]={ "to", "from", "over", "under", "on",  }; 

      sentenceGenerator( article, noun, verb, preposition, article, noun );

          return 0;


}

 sentenceGenerator( char **article,  char **noun,  char **verb,
      char **preposition, char **article2,  char **noun2 )
 {
    int i;
        int word;

        srand( time(NULL) );
        word = rand()%6;
       
          for (i = 0; i <20; i++)
       
        {
       
                printf( "%s%s%s%s%s%s\n", article[word], noun[word],  verb[word], preposition[word],
                        article[word], noun[word] );
        }

 }

---

You're not gaining anything here:

Code:

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sentenceGenerator( char **article,  char **noun,  char **verb,
      char **preposition, char **article2,  char **noun2 )
/* ... */
sentenceGenerator( article, noun, verb, preposition, article, noun );

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You're just passing two separate copies of the same pointers.

I might do something like this:

Code:

---

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

#define SIZE 5

void sentenceGenerator(const char *const art[],  const char *const noun[],
                      const char *const verb[], const char *const prep[])
{
  int i;
  for ( i = 0; i < 20; i++ )
  {
      printf( "%s %s %s %s %s %s\n",
              art  [rand() % SIZE],
              noun [rand() % SIZE],
              verb [rand() % SIZE],
              prep [rand() % SIZE],
              art  [rand() % SIZE],
              noun [rand() % SIZE]);
  }
}

int main()
{
  const char *art [SIZE] = { "the", "a", "one", "some", "any",};
  const char *noun[SIZE] = { "boy", "girl", "dog", "town", "car",};
  const char *verb[SIZE] = { "drove","jumped", "ran", "walked", "skipped",};
  const char *prep[SIZE] = { "to", "from", "over", "under", "on",};
  srand(time(0));
  sentenceGenerator( art, noun, verb, prep );
  return 0;
}

/* my output
the town ran over the boy
a girl skipped under a boy
a car drove on some town
.
.
.
*/

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That was my problem I didn't understand how to generate the random words. I will work on making the sentences begin with capitol letters and end with periods. I believe that there are special functions for that.

Have you ever heard of MatLab by the way? I believe that the reason for me taking this class is to use MatLab. I just hope its more intuitive than C.

"One boy jumped on some girl" :p

I tried to make the first letter of each sentence uppercase but think that im on the wrong track. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>
#define SIZE 5

void sentenceGenerator(const char *const article[],  const char *const noun[],
                      const char *const verb[], const char *const preposition[])
{
  char firstletter;
  int i;
  for ( i = 0; i < 20; i++ )
  {
      sprintf( "%s %s %s %s %s %s.\n",
              article        [rand() % SIZE],           
              noun          [rand() % SIZE],
              verb          [rand() % SIZE],
              preposition    [rand() % SIZE],
              article        [rand() % SIZE],
              noun          [rand() % SIZE]);

          char *strncpy( char *article, const char firstletter,  1 );
      toupper( fistletter );

          printf( "%s %s %s %s %s %s.\n",
              article        [rand() % SIZE],           
              noun          [rand() % SIZE],
              verb          [rand() % SIZE],
              preposition    [rand() % SIZE],
              article        [rand() % SIZE],
              noun          [rand() % SIZE]);
  }
}

int main()
{
  const char *article [SIZE] = { "the", "a", "one", "some", "any",};
  const char *noun[SIZE] = { "boy", "girl", "dog", "town", "car",};
  const char *verb[SIZE] = { "drove","jumped", "ran", "walked", "skipped",};
  const char *preposition[SIZE] = { "to", "from", "over", "under", "on",};
  srand(time(0));
  sentenceGenerator( article, noun, verb, preposition );
  return 0;
}

---

Code:

---

void sentenceGenerator(const char *const article[],  const char *const noun[],
                      const char *const verb[], const char *const preposition[])
{
  char sentence[128];
  int i;
  for ( i = 0; i < 20; i++ )
  {
      sprintf( sentence,
              "%s %s %s %s %s %s.",
              article        [rand() % SIZE],
              noun          [rand() % SIZE],
              verb          [rand() % SIZE],
              preposition    [rand() % SIZE],
              article        [rand() % SIZE],
              noun          [rand() % SIZE]);

      sentence[0] = toupper( sentence[0] );
      puts(sentence);
  }
}

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You make it seem so easy.

My only question is that in the directions it says that each word should be concatenated to the previous words, do I need to do anything else for this requirement? ( strcat) And if so, whats the purpose if I already get the desired results?

I suppose it depends on who is interpreting the "concatenation" requirement, I'd guess. To me, the format specifier used with sprintf surely concatenates the strings. Concatenating with strcat could accomplish the same thing, too. (But I wouldn't use them both together.)

[edit]I'd imagine a strcat approach would look like this:

Code:

---

      strcpy(sentence, article        [rand() % SIZE]);
      sentence[0] = toupper( sentence[0] );
      strcat(sentence, " ");

      strcat(sentence, noun          [rand() % SIZE]);
      strcat(sentence, " ");

      strcat(sentence, verb          [rand() % SIZE]);
      strcat(sentence, " ");

      strcat(sentence, preposition    [rand() % SIZE]);
      strcat(sentence, " ");

      strcat(sentence, article        [rand() % SIZE]);
      strcat(sentence, " ");

      strcat(sentence, noun          [rand() % SIZE]);
      strcat(sentence, ".");

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But the thought of all those passes back and forth through that poor string via the strcat gives me an incky feeling.