Select Random Line from .dat File using c++

Question

I have a .dat file with 10 lines, each line has a word. How would I randomly select a line so I could bring the word from the line into my function?

Answer 1

Here ya go. You can change the file name to whatever, and change the number of lines if you need. Based on the info you gave, I made this.

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <ctime>

int main()
{
        const char* myFileName = "data.txt";
        const int numberOfLines = 10;

        std::ifstream myData;
        std::string lines[numberOfLines];
        int index = 0;

        myData.open(myFileName, std::ifstream::in);
        while (myData.good() && index < numberOfLines ) {
                myData >> lines[index];
                index++;
        }
        myData.close();

        srand(time(NULL)); // Seed random number generator
        int randomIndex = rand() % index; // Incase there were less than numberOfLines
        std::cout << lines[randomIndex] << std::endl;
        return 0;
}