Deck of Cards, shuffle, randomize, not reproducing same card in a hand

[scottd82]

Hey everyone,

I wrote some code to create a deck of cards, described the deck and randomly deals 5 cards. First, I want to let everyone know that this is homework for my C-II college class, so I am not looking for any answers, but solutions or guidance in figuring out what I am trying to do. What I want to do with this deck of cards is to shuffle the deck and then deal 5 cards, while not dealing the same cards in that hand.

IE:
Program deals 5 cards. The 5 cards are as follow (I actually ran the program to get this scenario).

Your card is 6 of Spades. <-- This card is identical to the one below.
Your card is 11 of Diamonds.
Your card is 9 of Diamonds.
Your card is 6 of Spades. <-- Identical card to the one above.
Your card is 13 of Spades.

/IE

So, as stated above, how can I fix this while shuffling, randomly dealing, and only producing 1 card each in a hand? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

P.S. Almost forgot, here's my code.

#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <time.h>
#include <string.h>

      struct deck{
       int pips;
       char suit;
       }deck[52];
       
main()
{
      int i;
      int j;
      
      srand(time(NULL));
      
      char C[6]="Clubs";
      char D[9]="Diamonds";
      char H[7]="Hearts";
      char S[7]="Spades";
      
      for(i=0; i<13; i++)
      { deck[i].pips=i+1;
      deck[i+13].pips=i+1;
      deck[i+26].pips=i+1;
      deck[i+39].pips=i+1;
      
      deck[i].suit='C';
      deck[i+13].suit='D';
      deck[i+26].suit='H';
      deck[i+39].suit='S';
      
      }
      
      for(i=0;i<5;i++)
      {
                      j=rand()%53;
                      
          printf("Your card is %d of ", deck[j].pips);
          
          switch(deck[j].suit)
          {
                              case 'C': printf("Clubs\n");break;
                              case 'D': printf("Diamonds\n");break;
                              case 'H': printf("Hearts\n");break;
                              case 'S': printf("Spades\n");break;
                              default : printf("Out of bounds.\n");break;}
          
          } 
          
          
          system("PAUSE");
          }

[Moschops]

There are many ways to do this. Here are two ideas:

In your code above, each time you draw a card, check to see if you've alredy drawn that one. If you have, reject it and draw another.

Create all the cards in some suitable container - vector springs to mind. What you call a deck struct above clearly is not actually modelling a deck, but a single card. Your array of 52 decks (that you have named deck) IS a deck of cards, except that you have called the cards "decks", so you've got a deck of decks. Anyway, decide on your container, be it a vector or a simple array as above, and then shuffle that array (http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/algorithm/random_shuffle/ springs to mind) and then just read the cards one a at a time from that shuffled container.

[scottd82]

There are many ways to do this. Here are two ideas:

In your code above, each time you draw a card, check to see if you've alredy drawn that one. If you have, reject it and draw another.

Create all the cards in some suitable container - vector springs to mind. What you call a deck struct above clearly is not actually modelling a deck, but a single card. Your array of 52 decks (that you have named deck) IS a deck of cards, except that you have called the cards "decks", so you've got a deck of decks. Anyway, decide on your container, be it a vector or a simple array as above, and then shuffle that array (http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/algorithm/random_shuffle/ springs to mind) and then just read the cards one a at a time from that shuffled container.

How would I check after each card is drawn? Using an if statement?

[Moschops]

Either compare the card drawn with every card already drawn, or as each card is drawn mark it in some way (perhaps with a new field in the struct, or a whole new data structure of some kind) and then each time check to see if you have already made the mark. It will be easier to simply create a deck of cards and shuffle it, and then draw them one at a time in sequence.

As for whether you should use an if statement; that really is doing your homework for you.

[WaltP]

Food for thought:
How many cards in a deck?
How many cards in a suit?
How many cards of a rank? (same pips)

Can you see a correlation between all these numbers?
Are the following mathematical operators useful in calculating these numbers? * / %

You can make the job easier by thinking through these questions and coming up with a new representation of your deck.

Next:
Once you deal a card, as Moschops suggests, you need to remove the card from the deck or mark it as used.

[scottd82]

This code works, but somewhere in it I am getting a 'Your card is 0 of Out of Bounds.' Which it should give me the out of bounds, but what I'd like to do is remove the out of bounds and get no hand to produce a 0. Still trying to figure out how not to duplicate the same card in a hand. Ugh! I may need to ask for some examples.

[WaltP]

Ugh! I may need to ask for some examples.

Or you may need to post some code.