[splicecube]

Ive been working on a little program that goes through a .txt file called dictionary that contains 40k+ words (actually number is in code below) and prints out a random word. This program works semi-fine because it does initially does give me a random word from the dictionary but if I run it again the next "random" word will not exactly be random but a word that is relatively close to the last word the was printed from the previous compilation.My question is what can I change to make this program print out a word that is truly random every time, and if you can give me pointers on why the code I have here does not give me truly random values each time I compile it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help!

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
     srand(time(NULL));  
     string word[40437]; 

     ifstream list("dictionary.txt"); 
     
     int n = 0;
     while(n < 40437 && list >> word[n]) 
     {
         ++n;
     }

    

int r= rand() % 40437;
     cout << word[r] << '\n';
     system("pause");
}

[CTphpnwb]

I was able to duplicate this problem when my list had 7 items in it, but if I use 6 or 8 it generates a new initial word. It always generates new random second words, so it seems that the random seed is always generating a first random number that % 7 == 3.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
	string word[40437];
	
	ifstream list("dictionary.txt");
	srand((unsigned int)time(NULL));
	
	int n = 0;
	while(n < 40437 && list >> word[n])
	{
		n++;
	}

	int r;
	int test = rand();
	//cout << rand() << endl;
	r = test % n;
	cout <<test << "  " << n << "  " << r << "\nword: " << word[r] << '\n';
	r = rand() % n;
	cout << "word: " << word[r] << '\n';
}

dictionary.txt:

a
b
c
d
e
f
g

My advice would be to generate a random number right after using srand() but not use it, as below:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
	string word[40437];
	
	ifstream list("dictionary.txt");
	srand((unsigned int)time(NULL));
	rand();
	
	int n = 0;
	while(n < 40437 && list >> word[n])
	{
		n++;
	}

	int r;
	int test = rand();
	//cout << rand() << endl;
	r = test % n;
	cout <<test << "  " << n << "  " << r << "\nword: " << word[r] << '\n';
	r = rand() % n;
	cout << "word: " << word[r] << '\n';
}

[splicecube]

thank you so much for helping!!! I really appreciate you taking your time to help. Sorry I didnt react sooner