Minesweeper help

[cavetroll]

I have a working minesweeper game except for the one feature that is in the windows version. You know when you click a place that has empty spaces all around it shows all the empty places around it. How do I do that, I have researched pathfinding algorithms and have been thinking about ways to modify them. Any source is greatly appreciated.

[Saad]

It isnt pathfinding. The algorithm is that for the current cell, if the number of mines around it is not 0 then halt and show the current block, If the value of the current block is > 0 then show the current cell, and for every cell around it call the same algorithm.

[McKenzie]

Try looking at the "flood-fill" algorithm, it is a very similar problem.

[cavetroll]

Thanks for the quick responses, and yes you were right I wasn't looking for pathfinding but I didn't know the proper term for what I was looking for. I looked up flood-fill algorithms and found how to do it. Again thanks for the response.

[cavetroll]

Sorry I thought I had it but now I can't get the code to work, I am not sure why I tried to do it using recursion(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_fill) based on the first pseudo-code example. Here is the code,

code:

proc floodfill (nodex : int, nodey : int)     if squares (nodex, nodey, typ) not= 2 then         return     else         squares (nodex, nodey, state) := 2         for decreasing i : 1 .. -1             for ii : -1 .. 1                 if nodex - i > 0 and nodex - i < 19 and nodey - ii > 0 and nodey - ii < 19 then                     if i not= 0 and ii not= 0 then                         floodfill (nodex - i, nodey - ii)                     end if                 end if             end for         end for         return     end if end floodfill

but it isn't working. Any Ideas?

[Aziz]

There's a recursive and iterative method. I can post more help later on, when I'm not so swamped at work.

[Saad]

Cant diagnose based on the code you have, What error are you getting?

[cavetroll]

No error messages the code just doesn't do what it is intended to do. Have you read the earlier posts? They explain what the code is supposed to do but it doesn't work. I am just trying to figure out where it went wrong.

[CodeMonkey2000]

How have you implemented your minesweeper game?

[cavetroll]

I can post the code if you want but it is very messy right now so I'd rather not, but basically I have an array(squares(1..18,1..18,1..3)) which stores the data(count, type, state) for every square. When the square is click the state value is changed to 2 if it is left-clicked and 3 if it is right-clicked. Then I draw accordingly. The code given is what I want to run if the square clicked has a count of 0. Post if this doesn't help.

[Saad]

That alogorithm seems right, only problem I can see is that every square will have set to 2. Since it only checks if that square is 2 because of this all squares will end up as 2.
You want to check the amount of mines around the current cell aswell. If its not= 0 then return

[Aziz]

I can see a major problem in your logic.

Why does your array have three dimensions? Array indices should represent position, not value. Then value is store in a position of an array. So it does not make sense to have a 3D array for Minesweeper. If a user clicks a square, it changes the state, which changes the position, not the value.

What you should do is have a 2D array to store the state. I'm assume the array values already hold whether the square holds a mine or not? So squares(x,y,s) is 0 for mine, 1 for clear?

There's to approaches you could make. Both involved store both the state and the mine/not-mine data in the array (actually, you COULD have parallel arrays, but I'm not even going to bring it up to do horribleness)

1:

The value store at a position (x,y) in the array would be an integer. 1,2,3 would be the state. a negative would represent a mine

So a state of 1 would be (I'm assuming) a non-clicked square the is empty. A square with state of -1 would be a non-clicked square that contains a mine.

2: Better, IMO

Declare a type like so:

code:

type block    record of       state : int       mine : boolean    end record

(at least i think thats the right syntax)

and have an array to store the blocks:

code:

var squares : array 1 .. 10, 1 .. 10 of block for x : 1 .. 10    for y : 1 .. 10       squares(x,y).state = 1       squares(x,y).mine = false    end for end for

[cavetroll]

I think you misinterpreted what I said, if not I misinterpreted your message. I have 3 dimensions because the first 2 hold the x and y position on the grid. the second one stores state(whether it has been left or right clicked), count(how many mines are around this square), and type(whether it is a mine(1) or non-mine square(2)). These are accessed using the constants state, count, and typ. All squares start with the state value of 1(2 is left clicked, 3 is right clicked). the count value is different for each square.

[Aziz]

Could you post your source code?

An array's indices should only represent position.

Having an array with indices (x, y, state) represents squares in terms of x,y and state positions

each state (1,2,3) is a different value. The line squares (nodex, nodey, state) := 2 is "set the square at x position nodex, y position nodey, and state position state to 2. It does not mean set the state of square x,y to 2.

Its a bit confounding, so please post your source code and I can better understand it.

[cavetroll]

K here's the code,

code:

buttonchoose ("multibutton") setscreen ("graphics:max,max") const typ : int := 1 const count : int := 2 const state : int := 3 var xback, xfor, yback, yfor : int := 0 var font : int := Font.New ("Arial:20") var mines : int := 0 var squares : array 1 .. 18, 1 .. 18, 1 .. 3 of int var x, y, bud, btn : int proc floodfill (nodex : int, nodey : int)     if squares (nodex, nodey, typ) not= 2 then         return     else         squares (nodex, nodey, state) := 2         for decreasing i : 1 .. -1             for ii : -1 .. 1                 if nodex - i > 0 and nodex - i < 19 and nodey - ii > 0 and nodey - ii < 19 then                     if i not= 0 and ii not= 0 then                         floodfill (nodex - i, nodey - ii)                     end if                 end if             end for         end for         return     end if end floodfill       loop     mines := 0     for i : 1 .. 18         for ii : 1 .. 18             squares (i, ii, count) := 0             if mines = 75 then                 squares (i, ii, typ) := 2             else                 squares (i, ii, typ) := Rand.Int (1, 6)                 if squares (i, ii, typ) > 1 then                     squares (i, ii, typ) := 2                 end if             end if             if squares (i, ii, typ) = 1 then                 mines += 1             end if             squares (i, ii, state) := 1         end for     end for     exit when mines = 75 end loop for i : 1 .. 18     for ii : 1 .. 18         if squares (i, ii, typ) = 2 then             for t : -1 .. 1                 for tt : -1 .. 1                     if i + t > 0 and i + t < 19 and ii + tt > 0 and ii + tt < 19 then                         if squares (i + t, ii + tt, typ) = 1 then                             squares (i, ii, count) += 1                         end if                         if squares (i, ii, count) = 0 then                             squares (i, ii, state) := 1                         else                             squares (i, ii, state) := 1                         end if                     end if                 end for             end for         end if     end for end for loop     for i : 1 .. 18         for ii : 1 .. 18             drawfillbox (i * 25, ii * 25, i * 25 + 25, ii * 25 + 25, 29)             drawbox (i * 25, ii * 25, i * 25 + 25, ii * 25 + 25, 7)             if squares (i, ii, state) = 2 then                 if squares (i, ii, typ) = 2 then                     Font.Draw (intstr (squares (i, ii, count)), i * 25 + 5, ii * 25 + 2, font, 12)                 else                     drawfill (i * 25 + 5, ii * 25 + 5, 42, 7)                 end if             end if             if squares (i, ii, state) = 3 then                 drawfillbox (i * 25 + 5, ii * 25 + 5, i * 25 + 20, ii * 25 + 20, 42)             end if         end for     end for     buttonwait ("down", x, y, btn, bud)     if x >= 25 and x <= 18 * 25 + 25 and y >= 25 and y <= 18 * 25 + 25 and btn = 1 then         if squares (x div 25, y div 25, state) = 1 then             floodfill (x div 25, y div 25)         end if     end if     if x >= 25 and x <= 18 * 25 + 25 and y >= 25 and y <= 18 * 25 + 25 and btn = 3 then         if squares (x div 25, y div 25, state) = 1 then             squares (x div 25, y div 25, state) := 3         elsif squares (x div 25, y div 25, state) = 3 then             squares (x div 25, y div 25, state) := 1         end if     end if end loop

Again I apologize for the messy code.