hello, i am in need of help. i have to do this assignment for my programming class - create a tic tac toe game....the only thing is, im not sure how to check for a winner. i figured i could use a huge if statement, but thats uncivilized. there must be a way to use a loop and a counting variable right? anyway, advise me oh wise ones.

Yep, I''ll sign on that this is indeed homework.

But, in defense of Roger, at least he was bold enough to admit that it is homework, unlike many others. To purify it a bit, perhaps you (Roger) could give us a short write up of what you''ve done so far - how are you representing the game board? what techniques have you tried? any "pie in the sky" ideas? This will show us that you''ve thought about it, worked at it, broke a sweat, and aren''t looking for any hand outs, but rather, you''re asking for honest advice.

-Kirk

I must say...I''m ashamed of myself...I know I should be doing this by myself, but I panicked. I''m taking this course online, and the website that it uses is reeeeal crappy...when I go to login some days, the link will be dead...so anyway ive been trying to get in to check my grade and see about other assignments and stuff and i havent been able to for a while...then last night i finally got in and found out that i had the equivalent of a weeks worth of work DUE BY 12:00 THAT NIGHT! i got scared, but managed to finish all the work in about 3-4 hours...then i had to do this assignment, and all was well until i came to this part...but anyway, thats my story (not that you wanted to hear it or anything). And if its any consolation, yes i sweated over this for about and hour before i wrote in here. The reason im so bent on creating a loop is because thats what I just learned, so i figured it would be better to apply the new techniques to my assignment ... but yeah, if i didnt know how to, then i should have just done if statements. i would go into and explain all of what i have thought and how the program actually works, but guess what...while i slept, revelation came to me...yes! i think i know how to do it now....oh, and yeah i didnt get it handed in on time, but thats because the site was screwing up again last night, so its wasnt possible to (we''ll see if my prof believes me or not). well, thanks for the input, and i appretiate the verbal beatdown truly
bye now

Strangely I come up with the massive if statement as being the fastest and most elegant. (Ran faster than the any loop structure I could come up with, and was far more readable than one of my loop designs, about equally readable to the other more obvious loop design.) Your teacher will probably like the loop design and since you just learned it, I'd stick with it.

My more complex loop structure would have won if this was a large bitmap, but for a three by three array the if structure was fastest. There is some overhead in setting up a loop, so for loops as small as 3, ifs can be faster. Larger arrays however are usually better traversed with loops and logic.

Sometimes the obvious and simpler way is the better way to go.

1. Make it work
2. Make it fast/elegant

Realize you only need four ifs since you know where the last move was.

Shad

(I figure it's ok now, he says he finished his homework)



[edited by - ShadowCoder on October 2, 2002 12:58:03 PM]

People did not learn by doing nothing.