Connecting program to dictionary - c++

Question

I'm writing this program for the game "Scattegories" and I would like to connect some sort of dictionary (to check if the words exist) to the program.
If I were to do that how would I do it?
// A program to keep track of points and time and to give a random letter for the game scattergories
#include<iostream>
#include<ctime>
#include<string>
#include <chrono>
#include <thread>
using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::string;
using std::getline;
using namespace std::chrono_literals;
using std::this_thread::sleep_for;
void ltr() //gives a random letter
{
srand(time(NULL)); //gives a differant pattern every time
char letter;
letter = rand() % 26 + 65; //assigns a random letter in ascii code to a char (resulting in a random letter)
cout << "The letter is " << letter << "\n";
}
void timer()
{
cout << "You got 1.5 minutes to finish\n"; //Changing the duration of the timer is done by changing the value of 'i' in the "for" loop
for (int i = 90; i > 0; i--)
{
if (i % 5 == 0)
cout << i << "\n";
sleep_for(1s);
}
cout << "DING DONG!!! DING DONG!!! Time's up!!!\n";
}
void table()
{
int plr, ctr;
string lst[5][20]; //first dimantion: how many players. second dimantion: how many catagories, third dimantion(if added) will be the round
cout << "How many players?";
cin >> plr;
cout << "How many catagories?";
cin >> ctr; //parameters for later
cin.ignore(); //To avoid the "getline" reading the last input
for (int x = 0; x<plr; x++) //the player changes only after the previus player finishes
{
cout << "Player number " << x+1<<":";
timer(); //gives time to write the words. Optimaly it would run in the background while each player writes the words.
for (int i = 0; i<ctr; i++) //changing catagory
{
getline(cin, lst[x][i]);
}
system("cls");
cout << "Next player\n";
}
for (int x = 0; x<plr; x++) //this part (the whole "for" loop) is for confirming evreything is writen down
{
cout << "Player number " << x + 1 << ": ";
for (int i = 0; i<ctr; i++)
{
cout << lst[x][i] << " ";
}
cout << "\n";
}
sleep_for(5s);
}
int points() //points gained per round
{
int a, b, c, sum;
cout << "How many sections only you got?\n"; //worth 15 points
cin >> a;
cout << "How many words only you got?\n"; //worth 10 points
cin >> b;
cout << "How many words you and another person got?\n"; //worth 5 points
cin >> c;
sum = a * 15 + b * 10 + c * 5;
return sum; //Note: It doesn't matter how many sections there are.
}
int act() //running the program
{
int Points;
ltr();
table();
Points = points();
cout << "You have earned " << Points << " this round\n\n";
return Points;
}
int main()
{
auto start = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
int Points;
cout << "Starting in five seconds\n";
sleep_for(5s);
Points = act();
for (;;) //inf loop
{
int ph;
cout << "Press 1 to continue or anything else to stop\n";
cin >> ph;
if (ph == 1)
{
Points += act(); //keeping score of the rounds
}
else
{
auto end = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
break;
}
}
cout << "You have earned a total of " << Points << " great job!";
sleep_for(5s); //time to read the last text
return 0;
}
/*
To do list:
-Convert to arduino
-Make timer work in background of of table
-Check if words in the table (for differant players) are the same and give points accordingly
-Check if words are actual words (connect an online dictonary?)
-Make interface? (if possible and I have time to learn how)
-Think of what to do with Hardwear
-Comment rest of the code
-Make a point count for each player
-change "srand" placement
*/
Please keep in mind that I'm relatively new to programing (almost half a year), so please try to explain it as simple as you can, thanks.

Answer 1

Can be an interesting exercise to implement your own dictionary.
Use a large array of characters to store the words, sorted alphabetically, each null-terminated. In addition, keep an array of indexes, each pointing to the start of a word.
Then implement a dichotomic search for lookup. It will be fairly efficient because you will find a word after at most Log(N) string comparisons, each taking between 1 and L character comparisons, where L is the word length.
A solution based on hashing can be more efficient, but is a little harder to code.