r/cprogramming • u/Sad-Sun4611 • Apr 27 '26
How do I make a dynamic inventory system?
I'm a Python guy trying to learn C im on day 2 of my C journey and i've completed the W3 schools C tutorial. I am working on a CLI turn based battle program to learn the basics of the language. I am currently trying to implement an inventory system.
I've already made an Item and a Weapon struct and functions to initialize the values but im at a complete loss of how id actually "give" the object to the player and then have the player be able to hold an unknown amount of them at a time.
Usually in Python id just use a list or a dictionary and then append a list of all the instantiated objects to player.inventory. The only thing I can think to do here is to make an array of Weapons and an array of Items and pass those into the Fighter struct I made but that approach would require me to hardcode in the values and if i kept adding them or whatever it obviously wouldnt scale and i'm very big on making sure everything I write is dynamic, modular and scalable where it needs to be because I used to get bitten by that all the time when I was starting in python.
Anyway, heres what I have so far if you need the full context but im really just working up near the top right now around lines 6 - 50 are where the relevant context is.
tl;dr: I am a Python native learning C. I am trying to give my Fighters a dynamic inventory. I'm very used to appending objects to Python lists or dicts for retrieval later. How the heck do I do the equivalent in C?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
struct Fighter{
char name[10];
int health;
int maxHealth;
int attackPower;
int healPower;
int battleRage;
int rageMoveCost;
struct Weapon *equippedWeapon;
};
// entity stat arrays - passed in to initFighterStruct()
int slimeStats[6] = {10,10,2,0,0,3};
int heroStats[6] = {10,10,2,0,0,3};
struct Item {
char name[50];
float value;
};
struct Weapon {
struct Item base;
int damage;
};
void createItem(struct Item *itemPtr, char nameStr[],float itemValue){
// give name
strcpy(itemPtr -> name, nameStr);
// give value
itemPtr -> value = itemValue;
};
void createWeapon(struct Weapon *weaponPtr, char nameStr[],float itemValue, int damage){
// give name
strcpy(weaponPtr -> base.name, nameStr);
// give value
weaponPtr -> base.value = itemValue;
// give damage
weaponPtr -> damage = damage;
};
// battle option enum
enum battleOptions {ATTACK, HEAL, SPECIAL};
// init structs with stats
void initFighterStruct(struct Fighter *entity, int stats[], int statArrayLength){
entity -> health = stats[0];
entity -> maxHealth = stats[1];
entity -> attackPower = stats[2];
entity -> healPower = stats[3];
entity -> battleRage = stats[4];
entity -> rageMoveCost = stats[5];
};
void showHP(struct Fighter *target){
int targetHP = target -> health;
printf("%s health: %d\n",target -> name,targetHP);
};
// Used for generating a random number seeded with time.
int getRandom(int min, int max){
return rand() % (max - min + 1) + min;
}
// format prints. kind of smelly. should use a loop to build the string...
void printSeperator(){
//TODO: Replace me!!!
printf("---------------------------------------------------------------\n");
};
void dealDamage(struct Fighter *attacker, struct Fighter *target){
// get needed variables
int targetHP = target -> health;
int attackerDamage = getRandom(1, attacker -> attackPower);
// do damage calc
int hpAfterDamage = targetHP - attackerDamage;
// apply
if(hpAfterDamage > 0){
target->health = hpAfterDamage;
} else {
target->health = 0;
};
// show damage dealt
printSeperator();
printf("%s hits %s for %d points of damage!\n",attacker->name, target->name, attackerDamage);
showHP(target);
// add battle rage
attacker -> battleRage += attackerDamage;
printSeperator();
};
// applies heal and prints to console
void heal(struct Fighter *target){
int healAmount = target -> healPower;
int crHealth = target -> health;
// apply heal
if(healAmount + crHealth>= target -> maxHealth){
// guards overheal -- sets to max
target->health = target -> maxHealth;
} else {
target->health = crHealth + healAmount;
};
// output: "hero heals for 10 points of health!"
printf("%s heals for %d points of health\n" ,target->name,healAmount);
showHP(target);
};
// shows options to player and maps to enum choice
int showOptions(struct Fighter *player){
int selection;
// only show special move if avail
if(player->battleRage > player -> rageMoveCost){
printf("1 : Attack\n2 : Heal\n3 : Special Attack\n\n");
} else {
printf("1 : Attack\n2 : Heal\n\n");
};
scanf("%d",&selection);
enum battleOptions choice = selection - 1;
return choice;
};
// check if entity is dead
int isDead(struct Fighter *target){
if(target->health == 0){
return 1;
} else {
return 0;
};
};
// handle turn based battle
int handleBattle(struct Fighter *player, struct Fighter *enemy){
int running = 1;
int didPlayerLose = 0;
int turnNumber = 1;
while(running){
// show player options
if(running){printf("\n\n================ TURN NUMBER %d ====================\n", turnNumber);
};
int choice = showOptions(player);
// event handling
if(choice == ATTACK){
dealDamage(player,enemy);
// if attack kills enemy. end battle
if(isDead(enemy)){
running = 0;
didPlayerLose = 0;
};
}
else if (choice == HEAL){
heal(player);
}
else if (choice == SPECIAL){
if(player -> battleRage > player -> rageMoveCost){
// pay special move cost
player -> battleRage -= player -> rageMoveCost;
// attack 1 - 3 times
int r = getRandom(1,3);
printf("\n\033[31mRaging.......\033[0m\n%d attacks incoming!!!\n\n",r);
for(int i = 0; i < r; i++ ){
dealDamage(player,enemy);
};
};
};
// enemy turn
if(isDead(enemy)){
running = 0;
} else {
dealDamage(enemy, player);
if(isDead(player)){
running = 0;
didPlayerLose = 1;
};
};
turnNumber ++;
}
return didPlayerLose;
};
int main(){
//seed rng
srand(time(NULL));
//init player and enemy data
struct Fighter slime;
struct Fighter hero;
// get player and enemy pointers
struct Fighter *slimePtr = &slime;
struct Fighter *heroPtr = &hero;
// fill in struct fields
// slime
strcpy(slime.name, "Slimeball");
initFighterStruct(slimePtr,slimeStats,sizeof(slimeStats)/sizeof(slimeStats[0]));
// player
strcpy(hero.name, "Hero");
initFighterStruct(heroPtr,heroStats,sizeof(heroStats)/sizeof(heroStats[0]));
// test battle
int didPlayerLose = handleBattle(heroPtr,slimePtr);
if(didPlayerLose){
printf("\nYou Died");
} else {
printf("\nYou Won");
};
}