I'm building a chess game in Visual Studio and need to move pieces around a two-dimensional array. I can loop through the array and locate a piece, but I can't use the usual built-in array methods and I'm unsure how to transfer a value from one position to another while clearing its original position.
2 Answers
Copy the value into the destination cell, then clear the original cell. For a rectangular two-dimensional array, that would be: board[newX,newY] = board[oldX,oldY]; board[oldX,oldY] = default; Make sure the old and new coordinates aren't identical, or you'll clear the piece immediately after copying it. If you're using a jagged array instead, use board[newX][newY] and board[oldX][oldY].
A move is just an assignment to the new location followed by removing the value from the old one. For example, if a piece is at [0,4] and should move to [0,7], assign the piece to [0,7], then set [0,4] to an empty value such as default or null, depending on the array's element type. You would still need separate logic to validate whether the chess move is legal.
I hadn't seen that syntax before. I'll give it a try—thanks!