Algorithm for Determining Tic Tac Toe Game Over
you can use a magic square http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MagicSquare.html if any row, column, or diag adds up to 15 then a player has won.
You know a winning move can only happen after X or O has made their most recent move, so you can only search row/column with optional diag that are contained in that move to limit your search space when trying to determine a winning board. Also since there are a fixed number of moves in a draw tic-tac-toe game once the last move is made if it wasn't a winning move it's by default a draw game.
This code is for an n by n board with n in a row to win (3x3 board requires 3 in a row, etc)
public class TripleT {
enum State{Blank, X, O};
int n = 3;
State[][] board = new State[n][n];
int moveCount;
void Move(int x, int y, State s){
if(board[x][y] == State.Blank){
board[x][y] = s;
}
moveCount++;
//check end conditions
//check col
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
if(board[x][i] != s)
break;
if(i == n-1){
//report win for s
}
}
//check row
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
if(board[i][y] != s)
break;
if(i == n-1){
//report win for s
}
}
//check diag
if(x == y){
//we're on a diagonal
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
if(board[i][i] != s)
break;
if(i == n-1){
//report win for s
}
}
}
//check anti diag (thanks rampion)
if(x + y == n - 1){
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
if(board[i][(n-1)-i] != s)
break;
if(i == n-1){
//report win for s
}
}
}
//check draw
if(moveCount == (Math.pow(n, 2) - 1)){
//report draw
}
}
}
How about this pseudocode:
After a player puts down a piece at position (x,y):
col=row=diag=rdiag=0
winner=false
for i=1 to n
if cell[x,i]=player then col++
if cell[i,y]=player then row++
if cell[i,i]=player then diag++
if cell[i,n-i+1]=player then rdiag++
if row=n or col=n or diag=n or rdiag=n then winner=true
I'd use an array of char [n,n], with O,X and space for empty.
- simple.
- One loop.
- Five simple variables: 4 integers and one boolean.
- Scales to any size of n.
- Only checks current piece.
- No magic. :)