Thread: Counting number of items in an [][]array

post ur code

The number of items in an array is fixed. What you need to do is to have some dummy value that represents one-past-the-last-item.
E.g. if your cards were represented by the numbers 1-52 then you could use 0 to indicate that you've read the last item in a column.
If that doesn't answer the question, you'll most likely need to show code.

I know that any array is fixed in size, but what I care about is finding the last value in a colum of the array. If anyone is wondering what card game this is it's called Baker's Dozen. You start off with 13 columns of 4 cards in each column. A column can have max 11 cards and you place a lower value card on top of a higher value card or put it in 1 of the 4 suit piles starting with ace and going up. You can only move 1 card at a time.

I'm not showing the displayBoard() function cuz that's not important. The first commented out section is me checking that the user didn't choose an empty column to move a card from. As soon as I can figure out how to find the last item in a column the sooner I can add more code.

Code:

typedef struct
{
    char face[3];
    int suit;
} Card;

void fillDeck(Card eDeck[], char cardFaces[][3], int cardSuits[]);
void shuffle(Card fDeck[]);
void deal(Card fDeck[], Card stacks[][13]);
void displayBoard(Card stacks[][13], Card piles[][13]);

int main()
{
    Card deck[52];
    char facesList[13][3] = {"A", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8",
                          "9", "10", "J", "Q", "K"};
    int suitsList[4] = {3, 4, 5, 6};
    Card stacks[4][13];
    Card piles[4][13];
    int oldPos, pile;
    int cardCount = 0;
    char newPos;
    
    fillDeck(deck, facesList, suitsList);
    shuffle(deck);
    system("PAUSE");
    deal(deck, stacks);
    
    while(cardCount != 51)
    {
        displayBoard(stacks, piles);
        printf("\n\nChoose a column(1-13): ");
        scanf(" %d", &oldPos);
        oldPos--;
        
//        if(stacks[0][oldPos] == 0)
//        {
//            printf("There's nothing to move in this column.");
//            system("PAUSE");
//            system("CLS");
//            continue;
//        }
        
        printf("\nWhere to move this card to? (1-13 or p): ");
        scanf(" %c", &newPos);
        
        if(newPos == 'p') //needs wrong pile checker
        {
            printf("\nWhich pile? (1-4): ");
            scanf(" %d", &pile);
            pile--;
            //needs more stuff
        }
        
        //check card is one more than card to be placed
    }
    system("PAUSE");
    return 0;
}
    
void fillDeck(Card eDeck[], char cardFaces[][3], int cardSuits[])
{
    int i;
     
    for(i=0; i<=51; i++)
    {
        strcpy(eDeck[i].face, cardFaces[i%13]);
        eDeck[i].suit = cardSuits[i/13];
    }
}

void shuffle(Card fDeck[])
{
    int i;
    int randPos;
    Card temp;
    srand(time(NULL));
    
    for(i = 0; i <= 51; i++)
    {
        randPos = rand() % 52;
        temp = fDeck[i];
        fDeck[i] = fDeck[randPos];
        fDeck[randPos] = temp;
    }
}

void deal(Card fDeck[], Card stacks[][13])
{
    int i, k;
    int j = 0;
    
    for(i = 0; i < 4; i++)
    {
          for(k = 0; k < 13; k++)
          {
              stacks[i][k] = fDeck[j];
              j++;
          }
    }
}

You could create another array containing the number of cards remaining in each stack. That would allow you to keep track of which card is the last one in each stack.