ESc 014

Assignment 2 -- X's and O's
Due: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

Objectives

Practice with two-dimensional arrays and nested loops

Your Mission

Your task is to write a program that will play 2-player tic-tac-toe. Two users will take turns placing an X or an O on a 3 X 3 grid. The first player to create three Xs or three Os in a row either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins. A tie results if all spaces are filled without a winner.

The Algorithm

The basic procedure for playing a game of tic-tac-toe is as follows:

Set up the game board by initializing each "slot" of the 3 X 3 grid to a blank space.
Repeat the following until there is either a winner or a tie
- Make it be the correct player's turn (X or O. X will go first).
- Display the current state of the game board.
- Ask player for the row and column where they would like to place an X (or O). If the player specifies a place that is invalid (it's off the grid or there is already a piece there), then an error message should be displayed and the player should be asked to re-enter his/her move. Play should not continue until a valid move is entered.
- Place the appropriate symbol into the game board at the specified place.
- Check to see if the player's move resulted in a winner or a tie game.
Once the game is completed, display the final state of the game board and announce the winner (or say that it ended in a tie).

Sample Output

Here is what your output should look like for the first couple of moves of the game. It need not be exactly like this, but it gives you an idea of what needs to be included.

| | | |
_______
| | | |
_______
| | | |
_______
it is X's turn.

What row (1-3)? 1
What column (1-3)? 2

| |X| |
_______
| | | |
_______
| | | |
_______
it is O's turn.

What row (1-3)? 3
What column (1-3)? 3

| |X| |
_______
| | | |
_______
| | |O|
_______
it is X's turn.

What row (1-3)?

The Details

You are required to use a two-dimensional array for the game board. You are also not allowed to "ignore" index 0. Use it! You should also use nested loops whenever possible for traversing the slots of the game board. This will keep you from having to type the same code over and over. In order to figure out whether you should be using a loop or not in a certain place in your program, ask yourself the following: if you wanted to change your program to play tic-tac-toe on a 4 X 4 grid (4-in-a-row to win), or a 10 X 10 grid (10-in-a-row to win), how much work would be required to change your program? Loops should allow you to make such changes very easily. You will lose a significant number of points for inefficient code that does not use loops effectively.

Remember to use functions to break up this problem into smaller pieces. Here are some of the functions you may consider using:

a function to handle playing the game as a whole as described in the Algorithm section above. This function will in turn call other functions to handle other subtasks.
a function for initializing the game board with empty spaces.
a function to print the game board
a function to check to see if there is a winner. There's a winner if three Xs or three Os appear in either (1) one of the three rows, (2) one of the three columns, or (3) one of the two diagonals.
a function to check to see if there is a tie game. There's a tie if all spaces are filled and there is no winner.

You may use other functions as well.

Extra Credit alert: I've given you the minimum requirements for this program, but there is a lot of room for enhancement. Here are some ideas that will net you extra credit:

Get the two player's names and print them where appropriate during the course of the game.
Let the players decide who is X, who is O, and who goes first.
Let the user decide how many games s/he wants to play, and keep score of how many games each player has won.

Grading

This assignment is worth 50 points, divided as follows:

20 pts if your program plays the game correctly.
5 pts for appropriate determination of the winner or tie.
5 pts for appropriate error checking of the user's input.
5 pts for good testing of your code (don't forget to paste your test case results into the source code!)
5 pts for good documentation.
5 pts for good C++ language usage including nested loops.
5 pts for other design issues (good use of functions, no convoluted logic, etc.)

Remember to turn in both a paper and an electronic copy of your project on BlackBoard. Name your file with your FULL NAME along with the assignment number (e.g. chrisfernandes_hw2.cpp)

Having trouble? Don't wait until the last minute! Come see me and get your $80 worth.

Administrative statement

Programming assignments are individual projects. I encourage you to talk to others about the general nature of the project and ideas about how to pursue it. However, the technical work, the writing, and the inspiration behind these must be substantially your own. If any person besides you contributes in any way to the project, you must credit their work on your homework. Similarly, if you include information that you have gleaned from other published sources, you must cite them as references. Looking at, and/or copying, other people's programs or written work is inappropriate, and will be considered cheating.

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