A simple example of TicTacToe

If we were to break the big task of making a tictactoe game into smaller ones it would be

1. Making the Board
2. Taking options and replacing positions
3. Finding out the victor/tie

Making the board §

Making the board is simple enough by using some ideas of for loops and arrays we can make a simple looking board as such

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(){
	// The board would consist of 3x3 characters
	char board[3][3] = {{'-', '-', '-'}, {'-', '-', '-'}, {'-', '-', '-'}};
	
	printf("Borad\n");
	for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
		for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++){
			printf(" %c |", board[i][j]); // Prints the character of with a border |
		};
		printf("\n"); // New line for the new row
	}
}

Output: Board: - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |

• Using If conditions you can making it have the left border as well, Visually speaking a lot of things is possible with a lot more variety and much more appeal. But this is just to show how it can be operational

Taking inputs and making replacements §

What we can do here is simply, replace the character at the x, y position as our characters are entirely within an array

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(){
	
	char board[3][3] = {{'-', '-', '-'}, {'-', '-', '-'}, {'-', '-', '-'}};
	int loc;
	scanf("%d", &loc); // Implies the location
	int y = loc % 10;
	int x = loc / 10;
	
	board[x][y] = 'X'; // This would replace it with X no matter what
	printf("Borad\n");
	for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
		for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++){
			printf(" %c |", board[i][j]); 
		};
		printf("\n");
	}
}

In order to keep track of

1. If it should be X or O
2. The game should end We can declare a sel variable which will simply keep track of how many selections we’ve done

• If sel is even It can be ‘X’
• Odd -> ‘O’

Furthermore to change the value of X and O, We can declare an opt variable to simply store what character we are on

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(){
	
	char board[3][3] = {{'-', '-', '-'}, {'-', '-', '-'}, {'-', '-', '-'}};
	int loc, sel = 1; // As the first time selection will be 1st
	char opt = '-'; // Default value is null
	
	while (sel <= 9){ // A loop to keep asking locations
	    
	scanf("%d", &loc); 
	int y = loc % 10;
	int x = loc / 10;
	if (board[y][x] = '-'){ // Checks if the position hasn't already been picked
	if (sel % 2 == 0){ // switches between X and O as selection continues
	    opt = 'X';  
	} else {
	    opt = 'O';
	}}
	
	board[x][y] = opt;
	printf("Borad\n");
	for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
		for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++){
			printf(" %c |", board[i][j]); 
		};
		printf("\n");
	}
	sel++; // Increments the selections
	}
}

Now to handle an inconvenience issue, Currently, We are taking inputs x and y with respect to 0 as the initial value. But that isn’t what we usually do %%🖋 Edit in Excalidraw, and the dark exported image%%

We can do this by just taking such and such inputs and decrementing x and y by 1

	int y = loc % 10; // Taking x and y values starting from 1
	int x = loc / 10;
	x--;
	y--;

Like so

Winner or Not ? §

This is where the idea becomes mildly interesting, Some things to keep in mind

1. Check the victor when a location has been placed
2. Check if the declared opt is same for specific portions

We can divide the victories into specific portions

• Vertical

  • Where the y axis (row) the same
    • So keeping x of loc, we can increment j (y value) from 0 to 2 to see if the vertical for that specific X position is the same
    • %%🖋 Edit in Excalidraw, and the dark exported image%%

• Horizontal

  • Where the x axis (column) the same
    • So keeping y of loc, we can increment i (x value) from 0 to 2 to see if the vertical for that specific Y position is the same
  • %%🖋 Edit in Excalidraw, and the dark exported image%%

• Diagonal

  • Where the x++ and y— are the same
    • No value from the loc will be relevant
  • %%🖋 Edit in Excalidraw, and the dark exported image%%

• Anti-Diagonal

  • Where the x++ and y++ are the same
    • No value from the loc will be relevant
  • %%🖋 Edit in Excalidraw, and the dark exported image%%

In terms of code it would look like this

	// Column
	
	for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
		if (board[x][i] != opt){
			break;
		} else if (i == 2) {
			printf("WIN WIN WIN %c", opt);
			win = 1;
		}
	}
	
	// Vertical
	for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
		if (board[i][y] != opt){
			break;
		} else if (i == 2){
			printf("Winnn %c", opt);
			win = 1;
		} 
	}
	
	// Diagonal
	for(int i=0,j=0; i < 3; i++){
		if (board[i][j] != opt){
			break;
		} else if (i==2){
			printf("WINNN %c", opt);
			win = 1;
		}
		j++;
	}
	
	// Anti Diagonal
	for (int i = 0, j = 2; i < 3; i++){
		if (board[i][j] != opt){
			break;
		} else if (i == 2){
			printf("Winnnnnn %c", opt);
			win = 1;
		}
		j--;
	}
	

We can keep track of if a person won or not by simply having a int variable win and placing it in the condition of while loop, To function as long as it has a value of 0 (No victor yet)

The overall code for this would look something like this

 
#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(){
	char board[3][3] = {{'-', '-', '-'}, {'-', '-', '-'}, {'-', '-', '-'}};
	int sel = 1, loc;
	int win = 0;
	
	while (sel < 8 && win == 0){
	
	int loc;
	scanf("%d", &loc);
	char opt;
	int y = loc % 10;
	int x = loc / 10;
	x--;
	y--;
	
	if (board[x][y] == '-'){	
		if (sel % 2 == 0){
			opt = 'X';
		} else {
			opt = 'O';
		}
	};
	
	board[x][y] = opt;
	
	// Board
	
	printf("Board \n");
	for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
		for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++){
			printf(" %c |", board[i][j]);
		}
		printf("\n");
	}
	
	// Column
	
	for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
		if (board[x][i] != opt){
			break;
		} else if (i == 2) {
			printf("WIN WIN WIN %c", opt);
			win = 1;
		}
	}
	
	// Vertical
	for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++){
		if (board[i][y] != opt){
			break;
		} else if (i == 2){
			printf("Winnn %c", opt);
			win = 1;
		} 
	}
	
	// Diagonal
	for(int i=0,j=0; i < 3; i++){
		if (board[i][j] != opt){
			break;
		} else if (i==2){
			printf("WINNN %c", opt);
			win = 1;
		}
		j++;
	}
	
	// Anti Diagonal
	for (int i = 0, j = 2; i < 3; i++){
		if (board[i][j] != opt){
			break;
		} else if (i == 2){
			printf("Winnnnnn %c", opt);
			win = 1;
		}
		j--;
	}
	
	sel++;
	}
}

We can take this entire check, Place it in a function and then into the while loop, Making the overall code more elegant But that requires some understanding from later on stuffs!