Complex for-statements

I have got this four for-statements in a program of mine:

Code:

---

for (int i = a + 1, j = b + 1; i < 8 || j < 8; i++, j++)
{
        field[i][j] = -1;
        filled++;
        cout << i << ' ' << j << endl;                // Just to see what happens
}
for (int i = a + 1, j = b - 1; i < 8 || j >= 0; i++, j++)
{
        field[i][j] = -1;
        filled++;
}
for (int i = a - 1, j = b + 1; i >= 0 || j < 8; i++, j++)
{
        field[i][j] = -1;
        filled++;
}
for (int i = a - 1, j = b - 1; i >= 0 || j >= 0; i++, j++)
{
        field[i][j] = -1;
        filled++;
}

---

I have got the random numbers between 0 and 8 and field has the size [8][8].

I wanted to set from the random numbers a and b the diagonals to -1. I handle the two diagonals in two ways: first diagonal down and then up.

The problem is that after compiling and running the program crashes. After putting a cout statement in the first for-loop I saw what went wrong. This is the output:

Code:

---

2 5
3 6
4 7
5 8
6 9
7 10

---

I wasn't expecting that i or j would be greater then eight. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong.

I am using BCC5.5.

|| means or, not and. And is &&.

I now || means or. Else I will have the problem that the statement will be false if I get i = 6 and j = 10. It must stop before it gets there. So it needs an or.

Stop and think for a minute. Consider the i=6, j=9 case you had above. Is (i < 8 || j < 8) true? Of course it is -- since i = 6, i < 8. Do you want it to be true? Of course you don't, because your for-loop doesn't stop. Fortunately for you, (i < 8 && j < 8) will be false in this case, since j<8 will be false.

A yes. You're right. I always want to swap that to around. In a more normal for-statement I always see it directly that that's wrong. In this case I looked after the crash to that statement and thougt it was right.

Also, it looks like you ought to be decrementing in some of those loops.

You might want to consider using a function of sorts for this. The loops are all quite similar. You'd just have to pass in parameters describing whether you wanted i and j to increment or decrement. Then you'd probably return the filled value after the loop had finished.