c# How do I choose a random word in my dictionary that the person can guess on and for it also to say how many letters it is? [Hangman Game]

Question

I am currently making an Hangman game, and I have everything set except having it so for each turn the player is guessing on a random word, currently they can guess on all the words in my dictionary/wordbank, and also to tell the player how many letters the word has, Currently you can write random words in hope that you get the correct one. The only idea I have is o to use Random, but further then that and I'm lost.

Cheers.

class Program
{
   static List<string> ordbank = new List<string>() 
   {
      "Leksak", "Djur", "Organismer", "Mat", "Länder"
   };

    static bool runMenu = true; //kör menyn 
    static bool runGame = false; //kör spelet
    static int numberOfTries = 2; //antal försök personen har på sig 
    static int wrongGuesses = 0; // hur många gånger har personen gissat fel 
    static int numWordsToPutIn = 1; //Lägga till ett extra ord till listan, skulle vilja göra så man kan lägga till fler än 1 åt gången. 


    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hänga gubbe!\n1) Lägg till ord\n2) Lista till alla ord\n3) Spela\n4) Avsluta");
        do
        {
            Console.Write("Menu: ");
            string menuInput = Console.ReadLine();
            switch (menuInput.ToLower())
            {
                case "1":
                    Console.WriteLine("Du ska lägga till " + numWordsToPutIn + " ord nu.");
                    for (int i = 1; i <= numWordsToPutIn; i++)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Lägg till ord " + i + ": ");
                        string wordInput = Console.ReadLine();
                        ordbank.Add(wordInput);

                    }
                    ordbank.Sort();
                    break;  //Ifall man vill lägga till nytt ord till listan.

                case "2":
                    Console.WriteLine("Nu skrivs alla orden ut: ");
                    if (ordbank.Count > 0)
                    {

                        foreach (string ord in ordbank)
                        {
                            Console.WriteLine(ord);
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Listan är tom. Fyll den först."); //Behövs denna nu när jag ändrade så ord redan finns?
                    }
                    break; //Skriver ut orden de lagt in.

                case "3":
                    if (ordbank.Count == 0)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Fyll ordlistan med " + numWordsToPutIn + " ord innan du börjar spelet");
                        break;
                    }

                    Console.WriteLine("Hur många fel får man ha: " + numberOfTries + " ");
                    Console.WriteLine("Då kör vi, gissa vilka ord som finns med");
                    runGame = true;
                    wrongGuesses = 0;

                    do
                    {
                        Console.Write("Gissa ord: ");
                        string guessedWord = Console.ReadLine();
                        if (ordbank.Contains(guessedWord))
                        {
                            ordbank.Remove(guessedWord);


                            //kolla om personen har vunnit 
                            if (ordbank.Count == 0)
                            {
                                Console.WriteLine("Grattis du vann");
                                runGame = false;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                Console.WriteLine("Wohoo det ordet fanns med, fortsätt!");
                            }

                        }
                        else
                        {
                            wrongGuesses++;
                            //kolla om personen har förlorat 
                            if (wrongGuesses == numberOfTries)
                            {
                                runGame = false;
                                Console.WriteLine("Du förlorade.");
                                ordbank.Clear();
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                Console.WriteLine("Du gissade fel, du har " + (numberOfTries - wrongGuesses) + " försök kvar");
                            }
                        }

                    } while (runGame);
                    break;

                case "4":
                    Console.WriteLine("Spelet avslutas nu...");
                    runMenu = false;
                    break;
                default:
                    Console.WriteLine("Snälla välj ett tal mellan 1 - 4.");
                    break;        
            }
        } while (runMenu == true);

      }
   }
}  

Answer 1

You can use the Random class to generate pseudo-random numbers. Its Next method can be used to retrieve a random number between 0 (including) and a given max value (excluding).

If you use the word list's element count as the max value, you're computing a random index which is between 0 and (list length - 1). You can then retrieve your random word at that index:

var random = new Random();

// Compute a valid list index
int randomIndex = random.Next(ordbank.Count);

// Fetch the word at that index
string randomWord = ordbank[randomIndex];

Make sure to only create one instance of Random and to re-use it. Otherwise, you might notice that the same numbers could be generated over and over again if Random.Next is called in a loop.

Answer 2

This is obviously a course assignment of some sort, so i don't want to do it for you but the below code should give you a hint to the solution. Add all of the below to your code and use appropriately.

int selectedWordIndex = 0;
Random rand = new Random();
void pickNewRandomWord(){
    selectedWordIndex = rand.Next(ordbank.Count);
}
string getSelectedWord(){
    return ordbank[selectedWordIndex];
}