Problem checking condition in a loop

[Darrell Morello]

Hi all.
I am trying to create a Wordsearch game and having problems in placing words in the grid. Its a 15x15 grid and the problem is trying avoid words overlapping each other and if they do, they share the same character at
the point where they overlap.
They code seems to work sometimes but other times some words are showing up incomplete and it would really help if anyone can show me a better and simpler way to do this. Here is my code.
The words are taken from a class which stores the word as a string, an array of letters and also stores the start and end locations of the word on the grid.

Thanks

  public void placeWords()
{
int xyloop, wordloop;
int wordlength;
int xInit, yInit;
char TEMP_CHAR;

int xstart;
int ystart;
int xend;
int yend;
int totalLengthX;
int totalLengthY;
wordloop = 0;
boolean checkFit = true;
while(wordloop<FILE_LENGTH)

{
//gets the length of the word from the wordtest array
wordlength = wordtest[wordloop].getWord().length(); 

//create random orientation
int wordOrien = generator.nextInt(4); 

//set start location (grid size is 14)
xstart = generator.nextInt(14); 
ystart = generator.nextInt(14);

// set end location
xend = xstart; // end = start
yend = ystart;
int i;
int count = 0;
 // create int array for temp. locations
xgrid = new int[wordlength];
ygrid = new int[wordlength];

 //loop to place each character of word into grid
while(wordlength>=1)
{
//get the character from the letters array
//in wordtest object
TEMP_CHAR= wordtest[wordloop].letters[count]; 

x2 = xend;
y2 = yend;
x1 = xstart;
y1 = ystart;

//check if grid is empty or contains similar character
//and then place the character there
if(grid[xend][yend]==' ' || grid[xend][yend] == TEMP_CHAR)
{
checkFit = true;
//NORTHSOUTH is a previously created integer
if(wordOrien == NORTHSOUTH)  

{
//place in xgrid and ygrid temp.
xgrid[count] = xend; 
ygrid[count] = yend;
//check if last location is not greater
//than grid size
if(yend<14) 
yend+=1;
else
checkFit = false;
}

else if(wordOrien == EASTWEST)

{

xgrid[count] = xend;
ygrid[count] = yend;
if(xend<14)
xend+=1;
else
checkFit = false;
}

else if(wordOrien == NORTHWEST)

{
xgrid[count] = xend;
ygrid[count] = yend;
if(xend < 14 && yend<14)
{
xend+=1;
yend+=1;
}
else
checkFit = false;
}
else if(wordOrien == SOUTHEAST)

{

xgrid[count] = xend;
ygrid[count] = yend;
if(xend<14 && yend>0)
{
xend+=1;
yend-=1;
}
else
checkFit = false;
}
else 
{
xgrid[count] = xend;
ygrid[count] = yend;
if(yend<14)
yend+=1;
else
checkFit = false;
}

}
else 
{
checkFit = false;
}



wordtest[wordloop].setLocations(x1,y1,x2,y2); 
count++;
wordlength--;


}
// if all goes right
if(checkFit)
{
wordlength = wordtest[wordloop].getWord().length();
count = 0;
while(wordlength>=1)
{
TEMP_CHAR= wordtest[wordloop].letters[count];
grid[xgrid[count]][ygrid[count]] = TEMP_CHAR;
count++;
wordlength--;
}


wordloop+=1;


}
else
{
//if checkFit = false, start word again
wordloop = wordloop;
}


}

[ May 21, 2005: Message edited by: Darrell Morello ]

[ May 21, 2005: Message edited by: Darrell Morello ]
[ May 21, 2005: Message edited by: Darrell Morello ]

[Jeff Bosch]

I can't even read this -- it's far too wide for my monitor. Perhaps you could edit your post to remove the tabs and insert spaces instead? That would make reading it much easier for all of us.

Thanks!

[Darrell Morello]

I'm sorry but I cant seem to fix it. Maybe the code is too big. Anyway, I've got it now. Changing the while(wordlength>=1).... loop to a do{...}while(wordlength>=1 && checkFit) seems to have fixed it.

Thanks