Need help (url shorter)

Question

Can you give me example of url shorter program made in c++, i'm still confused and can't seem to get it working correctly

Answer 1

URL shorteners simply have a database and the server generates a random code, then assigns the original url to that code.

Then when you access that link, the server looks up the database, pulls out the url and redirects you.

C++ isn't the right language for this, I'm afraid.

Answer 2

Can i just use substrings and do a rand() ?