Tips on c programming/rate my first program

[Drvulcanlord]

// I have found that it works best for my first program to be a madlib generator

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h> // Needed for time()

int main() {
    // Seed the random number generator
    srand(time(NULL));
   
    /* 
     * The words to use for the mad lib
     * -for some reason, it didn't like the num array being a pointer
     * -the rest had to be pointers in order for me to reference them
    */ 
    char *adj[] = {"Dirty", "Ugly", "Big", "Small", "Stinky", "Shiny", "Happy", "Sad", "Bright", "Dark", "Quiet", "Loud", "Strong", "Weak", "Clever"};
    char *verb[] = {"Run", "Jump", "Swim", "Smell", "Look", "Sleep", "Sail", "Dig", "Fly", "Think", "Eat", "Sing", "Dance", "Read"};
    char *noun[] = {"Apple", "Boot", "Boy", "Girl", "Watch", "Phone", "Cat", "Dog", "House", "Car", "Tree", "Book", "Computer", "River", "Mountain"};
    int num[] = {1, 2, 45, 78, 80, 99, 7, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 200, 500};
    char *color[] = {"Red", "Blue", "Green", "Yellow", "Orange", "Purple", "Pink", "Black", "White", "Gray", "Brown", "Cyan", "Magenta", "Teal", "Lime"};
    
    // Random selections
    // adjectives
    char *adj1 = adj[rand() % 15];
    char *adj2 = adj[rand() % 15];
    char *adj3 = adj[rand() % 15];
    //verbs
    char *verb1 = verb[rand() % 15];
    char *verb2 = verb[rand() % 15];
    char *verb3 = verb[rand() % 15];
    // nouns
    char *noun1 = noun[rand() % 15];
    char *noun2 = noun[rand() % 15];
    char *noun3 = noun[rand() % 15];
    // colors
    char *color1 = color[rand() % 15];
    char *color2 = color[rand() % 15];
    char *color3 = color[rand() % 15];
    //num
    int num1 = num[rand() % 15];   
    int num2 = num[rand() % 15];  
    int num3 = num[rand() % 15];   
    
    // determines what story template to use
    int storyNum = rand() & 2; 
    switch (storyNum) {
        case 0:
            printf("One %s morning, a %s %s decided to %s a %s %s.\n", adj1, adj2, noun1, verb1, color1, adj3);
            break;
        case 1:
            printf("After %d long hours, the %s %s finally managed to %s the %s %s.\n", num1, adj1, noun1, verb1, color1, adj2);
            break;
        case 2:
            printf("In a %s land, the %s and %s %s tried to %s a mysterious %s treasure guarded by a %d-headed dragon.\n", color1, adj1, adj2, noun1, verb1, adj3, num1);
            break;
    }
    return 0;
}

Lately I have been experimenting with programming in C, and this is my first (real) program. Was posting to get some thoughts or suggestions about C/ this program.

 

For context the first language I learned was JavaScript but wanted to learn a more performant language for making UNIX programs so obviously I looked into C. I enjoy the simplicity of it, and it’s forcing me to lean low level concepts. I don’t program as a job, nor plan too, it’s just a hobby.

[PDifolco]

It's cool

You could easily improve to non fixed sized arrays and externalize the "dictionary" as a data file to make it "evolutive"

[Drvulcanlord]

7 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

It's cool

You could easily improve to non fixed sized arrays and externalize the "dictionary" as a data file to make it "evolutive"

Thank you!, what do you mean by making it evolutive?

[Kilrah]

Being able to change the words etc without recompiling the program.

 

29 minutes ago, Drvulcanlord said:

/* 
     * The words to use for the mad lib
     * -for some reason, it didn't like the num array being a pointer
     * -the rest had to be pointers in order for me to reference them
    */ 

Each string is an array of chars, so when you define one you get a pointer to the first char in the string, so your array needs to be an array of pointers to chars. The ints are just ints directly.

[PDifolco]

7 minutes ago, Drvulcanlord said:

Thank you!, what do you mean by making it evolutive?

Being able to change or add words, not only a fixed set which needs you to change the code for that

[wasab]

C is a very good language to learn how computer works. It is barely just a step above assembly. Since you plan on creating softwares for UNIX, check out the POSIX Application Programming Interfaces. These can teach you how an operating system works under the hood and also help your software to be very portable on these UNIX and UNIX like platforms. Although to be honest, if you only stick to the C standard library, pretty sure you can port and cross compile on just any of the popular operating systems and platforms. 

[Drvulcanlord]

27 minutes ago, wasab said:

C is a very good language to learn how computer works. It is barely just a step above assembly. Since you plan on creating softwares for UNIX, check out the POSIX Application Programming Interfaces. These can teach you how an operating system works under the hood and also help your software to be very portable on these UNIX and UNIX like platforms. Although to be honest, if you only stick to the C standard library, pretty sure you can port and cross compile on just any of the popular operating systems and platforms. 

Thanks, I’ll do that!