Searching word(string) in matrix.

Hi, I'm programming an alphabeth soup, i got my 25x25 matrix displayed with random letters, i've been thinking and thinking different ways to search words o it but neither of them works.
ex

a j k k l m
a f q w r s
m i t u v w

i want to get the word "AJK", i tried by using multiple for's and if's but i still couldn't get it, and after i started looking for functions like strstr, some help would be great i'm new at programming.
sorry about the english.

Do you have a list of words? Your computer can't tell if a word has been found, unless you tell it what "words" are. :p

Then you can search your matrix (in all 8 directions), but you have to be careful to stay within the bounds of the matrix. I suggest using a 1 row and 1 column "border", and give it a very unique "border" value - maybe -99. Now you can use your checking for letters more freely, and stop (checking letters in that direction), if you detect that value in the matrix.

But first thing, is you need a word list - they are available on-line, (big and medium one's), but you may use a small one smartly, for starting out, and put each word, into an array - for now.

you get the word by scanf

I see, you're looking for ONE word, that the user enters.

So you need to search outward, from every letter in the array. That sounds like a for loop to me:

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define Nrows 25
#define Ncols 25


int len, r,c;
char word[4]="ajk", *pfound;
char found[Ncols+1];


scanf("%s", word);
getchar();
len = strlen(word);

/* build a string from each row. See if the string contains the word */
for(r=0;r<Nrows;r++) {
  found[0]='\0';                //reset the found array
  for(c=0;c<Ncols;c++) {  //build the string from the row of letters
    found[c]=letters[r][c];
  } 
  found[c]='\0'; //add end of string char
  pfound = strstr(word, found);  //is the word inside the letters row?

  if(pfound) {   
    printf("\nWord was found. Word: %s  Found: %s", word, pfound);  //yes
    }
  }
}

---

This isn't a program that will run. It's "idea code", that shows how I'd go about it. This is for checking rows only, not columns, and not 8 directions. Obviously, you can adapt this same idea, to check all the directions.

thanks dude that was exactly what i was looking for :).

ok i tried what you said, but my code still crashes, i don't get why, this is the general code. (sorry its in spanish)
the switch is a menu where you
1 load soup
2 show soup
3 search word
4 exit

Code:

---

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<time.h>
#include<string.h>
#define n 25

void main ()
{
    char sopa[n][n], palabra[26], busca[n+1],*encuentra ;
    int menu,i,j,letras;
    printf("Bienvenido, tipee el numero de la opcion que desea\n");

    do
    {

        printf("\n1.-Cargar sopa\n2.-Mostrar sopa\n3.-Buscar palabra\n4.-Salir\n");
        scanf("%d",&menu);


        switch(menu)
        {
            case 1:
                srand(time(NULL));
                for(i=1;i<n;i++)
                {
                    for(j=1;j<n;j++)
                    sopa[i][j]=(rand()%26)+97;
                };
                printf("NUEVA SOPA CARGADA");
                break;
            case 2:
                printf("SOPA DE LETRAS\n");
                printf("--------------------\n");
                for(i=0;i<n;i++)
                {
                    for(j=0;j<n;j++)
                    if(j==n-1)
                    printf("%c\n",sopa[i][j]);
                    else
                    printf("%c ",sopa[i][j]);
                }
                break;
            case 3:
                printf("ingrese la palabra que desea buscar y presione enter. \n");
                scanf("%s",palabra);
                printf("Palabra a buscar:\n");
                printf("%s",palabra);
                letras=strlen(palabra);
                printf("\nPalabra de %d letras",letras);
                printf("\nBuscando...\n");


                for(i=0;i<n;i++)
                {
                    busca[0]='\0';
                    for(j=0;j<n;j++)
                    {
                      busca[i]=sopa[i][j];
                    }
                    encuentra=strstr(palabra,busca);
                    if(encuentra=palabra)
                    {
                        printf("\nLa palabra fue encontrada:\nPalabra:%s\nFila:%d",palabra,i);
                        encuentra[0]='\0';
                    }
                    else
                    printf("\nPalabra no encontrada :(");

                }


                break;

            case 4:
                printf("Cerrando aplicacion");break;
            default:
                printf("Entrada invalida, vuelva a intentar.");
                break;
        }
    }
    while(menu!=4);
}

---

no matter what i try in search word it doesn't seems to perfectly work.

The first step in troubleshooting is to see where it "doesn't work perfectly". Give me an example of when it fails.

Any warnings or error messages?

I'd also suggest you paste this into the Google translate website window, and have it translated to english. Then copy and paste it back here - the little spanish I knew, has seriously degraded over the decades.

i finally did it :):) thanks for all adak you were very helpfull!

Code:

---

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<time.h>
#include<string.h>
#define n 25
void cargar(char sopa[n][n])
{
    int i,j;
    srand(time(NULL));
    for(i=0;i<n;i++)
    {
        for(j=0;j<n;j++)sopa[i][j]=(rand()%26)+97;
    }
    printf("NUEVA SOPA CARGADA");

}
void mostrar(char sopa[n][n])
{
    int i,j;
    printf("SOPA DE LETRAS\n");
    printf("--------------------\n\n\n");
    for(i=0;i<n;i++)
    {
        for(j=0;j<n;j++)
        {if(j==n-1)
        printf("%c\n",sopa[i][j]);
        else
        printf("%c ",sopa[i][j]);
        }
    }
}
void invertir(char palabra[])
{
  int aux, i, j;

  for (i=0, j=strlen(palabra)-1; i<j;i++, j--)
  {
    aux= palabra[i];
    palabra[i] =palabra[j];
    palabra[j] =aux;
  }
}

int buscacol(char palabra[n],char sopa[n][n])
{
  int i,j,aux=0,aux2,encuentra,coord[2];
  for(i=1;i<n;i++)
    {
        for(j=1;j<n;j++)
        {
            if(palabra[aux]==sopa[i][j])
            {
                for(aux2=1,aux=0;palabra[aux]!='\0' && aux2;aux++)
                {
                    if(palabra[aux]==sopa[i][j+aux])
                    {
                        coord[0]=i;
                        coord[1]=j;
                        encuentra=1;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        aux2=0;
                        aux=-1;
                    }
                }
                if (palabra[aux]=='\0') return (encuentra);
            }
        }
    }
  if(encuentra=1)
  {
      printf("Palabra encontrada en fila:%d Columna:%d",coord[0],coord[1]);
  }
}

int buscafil(char palabra[n],char sopa[n][n])
{
  int i,j,aux=0,aux2,encuentra,coord[2];
  for(j=1;j<n;j++)
    {
        for(i=1;i<n;i++)
        {
            if(palabra[aux]==sopa[i][j])
            {
                for(aux2=1,aux=0;palabra[aux]!='\0' && aux2;aux++)
                {
                    if(palabra[aux]==sopa[i][j+aux])
                    {
                        coord[0]=i;
                        coord[1]=j;
                        encuentra=1;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        aux2=0;
                        aux=-1;
                    }
                }
                if (palabra[aux]=='\0') return (encuentra);
            }
        }
    }
  if(encuentra=1)
  {
      printf("Palabra encontrada en fila:%d Columna:%d",coord[0],coord[1]);
  }
}




void main ()
{
    char sopa[n][n], palabra[n];
    int menu,i,j,h,aux;


    printf("Bienvenido, tipee el numero de la opcion que desea\n");

    do
    {

        printf("\n1.-Cargar sopa\n2.-Mostrar sopa\n3.-Buscar palabra\n4.-Salir\n");
        scanf("%d",&menu);


        switch(menu)
        {
            case 1:
                cargar(sopa);
                break;
            case 2:
                mostrar(sopa);
                break;

            case 3:
                printf("ingrese la palabra que desea buscar y presione enter. \n");
                scanf("%s",palabra);
                printf("Palabra a buscar:\n");
                printf("%s",palabra);
                h=strlen(palabra);
                printf("\nPalabra de %d letras",h);
                printf("\nBuscando...\n");
                for(aux=0;aux<1;0)
                {

                    if(buscacol(palabra,sopa))
                    break;
                    else{aux++;}
                    invertir(palabra);
                    if(buscacol(palabra,sopa))
                    break;
                    else{aux++;}
                    invertir(palabra);
                    if(buscafil(palabra,sopa))
                    break;
                    else{aux++;}
                    invertir(palabra);
                    if(buscafil(palabra,sopa))
                    break;
                    else{aux++;}
                }
                if(aux=4)
                printf("\nPalabra no encontrada, pruebe con otra.\n");


                break;

            case 4:
                printf("\nCerrando aplicacion\n");break;
            default:
                printf("\nEntrada invalida, vuelva a intentar.\n");
                break;
        }

    }
    while(menu!=4);
}

---