c++ chess game help

hey, i am making a SIMPLE text based chess game and am having a problem when it gets to entering someones more... i don't know why, but here is my code:

Code:

#include <iostream.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <conio.h>

// function prototypes
void setup_board();
void display_board();
void set_coords();

// global variables
char piece_moved;
char board[10][10];
char choice;
char *move;
short x, y;
short checkmate;

int main()
{  
  setup_board();
  display_board();

  while(!checkmate)
  {
    cout << "\nEnter Move From: ";
    cin >> move; // ex: b2

    set_coords();

    piece_moved = board[x][y];

    board[x][y] = ' ';

    cout << "Enter Move To: ";
    cin >> move; // ex: b4

    set_coords();

    board[x][y] = piece_moved;
  
    display_board();
  }

  system("PAUSE");
  return 0;
}

void setup_board()
{
  // clear boxes
  for(x=0;x<10;x++)
  {
    for(y=0;y<10;y++)
    {
      board[x][y] = ' ';
    }
  }
  // color board
  for(x=0;x<8;x++)
  {
    for(y=0;y<8;y++)
    {
      board[x][y] = '-';
    }
  }
  // upper pieces
  board[0][0] = 'P';
  board[0][1] = 'P';
  board[0][2] = 'P';
  board[0][3] = 'P';
  board[0][4] = 'P';
  board[0][5] = 'P';
  board[0][6] = 'P';
  board[0][7] = 'P';

  board[1][0] = 'R';
  board[1][1] = 'N';
  board[1][2] = 'B';
  board[1][3] = 'Q';
  board[1][4] = 'K';
  board[1][5] = 'B';
  board[1][6] = 'N';
  board[1][7] = 'R';

  // lower piece  
  board[6][0] = 'P';
  board[6][1] = 'P';
  board[6][2] = 'P';
  board[6][3] = 'P';
  board[6][4] = 'P';
  board[6][5] = 'P';
  board[6][6] = 'P';
  board[6][7] = 'P';

  board[7][0] = 'R';
  board[7][1] = 'N';
  board[7][2] = 'B';
  board[7][3] = 'Q';
  board[7][4] = 'K';
  board[7][5] = 'B';
  board[7][6] = 'N';
  board[7][7] = 'R';

  // notation help
  board[7][9] = 'A';
  board[6][9] = 'B';
  board[5][9] = 'C';
  board[4][9] = 'D';
  board[3][9] = 'E';
  board[2][9] = 'F';
  board[1][9] = 'G';
  board[0][9] = 'H';
  
  board[9][0] = '1';
  board[9][1] = '2';
  board[9][2] = '3';
  board[9][3] = '4';
  board[9][4] = '5';
  board[9][5] = '6';
  board[9][6] = '7';
  board[9][7] = '8';
}

void display_board()
{
  for(x=0;x<10;x++)
  {
    for(y=0;y<10;y++)
    {
      cout << board[x][y];
    }
    cout << endl;
  }
}

void set_coords()
{
  // get x value from character
  if(strchr(move,'a'))
  {
    x = 7;
  }
  else
  {
    if(strchr(move,'b'))
    {
      x = 6;
    }
    else
    {
      if(strchr(move,'c'))
      {
        x = 5;
      }
      else
      {
        if(strchr(move,'d'))
        {
          x = 4;
        }
        else
        {
          if(strchr(move,'e'))
          {
            x = 3;
          }
          else
          {
            if(strchr(move,'f'))
            {
              x = 2;
            }
            else
            {
              if(strchr(move,'g'))
              {
                x = 1;
              }
              else
              {
                if(strchr(move,'h'))
                {
                  x = 0;
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
  
  // get y
  if(strchr(move,'1'))
  {
    y = 0;
  }
  else
  {
    if(strchr(move,'2'))
    {
      y = 1;
    }
    else
    {
      if(strchr(move,'3'))
      {
        y = 2;
      }
      else
      {
        if(strchr(move,'4'))
        {
          y = 3;
        }
        else
        {
          if(strchr(move,'5'))
          {
            y = 4;
          }
          else
          {
            if(strchr(move,'6'))
            {
              y = 5;
            }
            else
            {
              if(strchr(move,'7'))
              {
                y = 6;
              }
              else
              {
                if(strchr(move,'8'))
                {
                  y = 7;
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

if you can help... it would help me out a lot!

thanks,
JDM

>char *move;
This just declares a pointer, no space for the actual data. You can either use new to allocate some memory, or change this to:

char move[5];

You are making your life hell with such bad approach use OOP for this it would be much easier ...

hey thanks.. that worked...

i was introduced to programming at the beginning of this year... i am in 10th grade and our class is moving really slow... we haven't been introduced to OOP yet... i will have programming classes all next year so for now, I guess I will have to through H***...

what would be the best solution for this anyhow?

For starters, you might change all those nested if...else statements into a switch block. I think that would make your code quite a bit simpler and more readable. I'm pretty new to C++ too, though...

Originally Posted by jdm

For starters, you might change all those nested if...else statements into a switch block. I think that would make your code quite a bit simpler and more readable. I'm pretty new to C++ too, though...

I dont think that's possible here, since each if statement deals with a different conditional.

just to clean up your code a bit, you could get rid of alot of the curlies:

Code:

void set_coords()
{
  // get x value from character
  if(strchr(move,'a'))
    x = 7;
  else if(strchr(move,'b'))
    x = 6;
  else if(strchr(move,'c'))
    x = 5;
  else if(strchr(move,'d'))
    x = 4;
  else if(strchr(move,'e'))
    x = 3;
  else if(strchr(move,'f'))
    x = 2;
  else if(strchr(move,'g'))
    x = 1;
  else if(strchr(move,'h'))
    x = 0;
...