Blockbusters Array

Hi

I have made up a sheet containing a grid of 4x5 hexagons to re-create the 1980's gameshow "Blockbusters".

For those of you young enough(and lucky enough!) not to remember it, it was a quiz for two teams (1 person v 2 people) answering questions to cross a grid.

I would like to detect when a team has won, ie crossed the grid.

I have put the grid into two arrays, one for crossing left to right, and one for top to bottom.

I started writing code using IF statements:

Code:

---

Sub MyAlgArray()
    Dim A() As Variant
    A = Sheet1.Range("i12:m15")
    'Line across top
    If A(1, 1) = 1 And A(1, 2) = 1 Or A(1, 1) = 1 And A(2, 2) = 1 Then
        If A(1, 3) = 1 And A(2, 4) = 1 And A(2, 5) Then MsgBox "Equal"
        If A(1, 3) = 1 And A(1, 4) = 1 Or A(1, 3) = 1 And A(2, 4) = 1 Then
            If A(1, 5) = 1 Then MsgBox "Equal"
        End If
    End If
   
    '2nd line
    If A(2, 1) = 1 And A(2, 2) = 1 Or A(2, 1) = 1 And A(3, 2) = 1 Then
        If A(2, 3) = 1 And A(2, 4) = 1 And A(1, 5) Then MsgBox "Equal"
        If A(2, 3) = 1 And A(3, 4) = 1 And A(3, 5) Then MsgBox "Equal"
        If A(2, 3) = 1 And A(2, 4) = 1 Or A(2, 3) = 1 And A(3, 4) = 1 Then
            If A(2, 5) = 1 Then MsgBox "Equal"
        End If
    End If
    '3rd line
    If A(3, 1) = 1 And A(3, 2) = 1 Or A(3, 1) = 1 And A(4, 2) = 1 Then
        If A(3, 3) = 1 And A(3, 4) = 1 Or A(3, 3) = 1 And A(4, 4) = 1 Then
            If A(3, 5) = 1 Then MsgBox "Equal"
        End If
    End If
    '4th line
    If A(4, 1) = 1 And A(4, 2) = 1 Then
        If A(4, 2) = 1 And A(3, 3) = 1 Or A(4, 2) = 1 And A(4, 3) = 1 Then
            If A(4, 4) = 1 And A(3, 5) = 1 Or A(4, 4) = 1 And A(4, 5) = 1 Then MsgBox "Equal"
        End If
    End If
End Sub

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As you can see, this has got very messy very quickly, and this is just for the basic right to left crossing.

Any ideas how this can be done more efficiently?

Best regards

Paul Ked

I think I understood the game

If the worksheet grid was always 1's or 0's, it'd be simpler

Code:

---


Option Explicit
Dim A() As Variant

Sub CheckOnes()
    Dim iRow As Long, iCol As Long
   
    A = Sheet1.Range("i12:m15").Value
   
    'make array only 1's and 0's
    For iRow = LBound(A, 1) To UBound(A, 1)
        For iCol = LBound(A, 2) To UBound(A, 2)
            If Len(A(iRow, iCol)) = 0 Then
                A(iRow, iCol) = 0
            Else
                A(iRow, iCol) = 1
            End If
        Next iCol
    Next iRow
   
    'check rows
    For iRow = LBound(A, 1) To UBound(A, 1)
        If pvtSumArray(iRow, 0) = UBound(A, 2) Then
            MsgBox "Row " & iRow & " = " & UBound(A, 2)
        End If
    Next iRow
   
    'check cols
    For iCol = LBound(A, 2) To UBound(A, 2)
        If pvtSumArray(0, iCol) = UBound(A, 1) Then
            MsgBox "Column " & iCol & " = " & UBound(A, 1)
        End If
    Next iCol
End Sub

Private Function pvtSumArray(Optional iRowSum As Long = 0, Optional iColSum As Long = 0) As Long
    Dim i As Long, iHold As Long
   
    'sum accross row = iRowSum
    If iRowSum > 0 Then
        For i = LBound(A, 2) To UBound(A, 2)
            iHold = iHold + A(iRowSum, i)
        Next I
       
    'sum down col = iColSum
    ElseIf iColSum > 0 Then
        For i = LBound(A, 1) To UBound(A, 1)
            iHold = iHold + A(i, iColSum)
        Next I
    End If
       
    pvtSumArray = iHold
End Function

---

Hi Paul.

Thanks for reply, but unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem.

As the 'boxes' are hexagonal there are numerous connections to get from one side of the grid to the other (see modification to your book attached).

This is where the headache begins!

Best Regards

Paul Ked

PS. I have set up two arrays which are only ones and zeros, one array for team A (L to R) and the other for team B (T to B).

Whilst digging around, I found this:

Quote:

---

For each player, loop through all the cells; if the cell is owned by the player, and is adjacent on one if it's six sides to a cell 'marked' by this fill routine, then the cell gets marked too. Loop again through all the cells, and again until no cells get marked to the current player. Here's some pseudo-code:

for player in players:

# those on the starting edge that the player owns get 'marked'

for cells in cells.start_edge(player):

if cell.owner = player:

cell.mark = player

do:

count = 0

for cell in cells:

if cell.mark == None && cell.owner == player:

for adjacent in cell.neighbours:

if adjacent.mark == player

cell.owner = player

count += 1

break

while count

for cell in cells.stop_edge(player):

if cell.mark == player

player won!!

---

?????

Don't know what happened, but last part went AWOL!

I understand the logic but don't know how to code it. Any help would be much appreciated.

Best regards

Paul Ked

solved problem?