This is the problem i was given to solve: Write a function searchDirection(word, row, col, direction, grid) that takes a word to find, a row and column starting position, a direction string such as "down", and a grid, and searches for the word in the given direction only, from the given starting position. If the word is found, a message is printed and True is returned. Otherwise, nothing is printed and False is returned.
I'm supposed to use nested for loops... but I don't know how to structure them?
Here are what the outputs should look like:
searchDirection("frog", 0, 5, "down", g) should print “frog found at (0, 5) going down” and return True
searchDirection("frog", 0, 5, "right", g) should return False, without printing anything
Here is a solution using a while loop, I will leave it as an exercise for you to figure out how to convert the logic into "nested for loops" (Hint: Take a look at the More Control Flow Tools section of the official documentation):
def searchDirection(word, row, col, direction, grid):
m = len(grid)
if not m:
return False
n = len(grid[0])
if not n:
return False
directions = {
"up": (-1, 0),
"right": (0, 1),
"down": (1, 0),
"left": (0, -1)
}
if direction not in directions:
return False
i = 0
r, c = row, col
while i < len(word) and 0 <= r < m and 0 <= c < n:
if grid[r][c] != word[i]:
return False
r += directions[direction][0]
c += directions[direction][1]
i += 1
if i == len(word):
print(f"{word} found at ({row}, {col}) going {direction}")
return i == len(word)
g = [['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'],
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'r'],
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'o'],
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'g'],
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'],
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f']]
print(searchDirection("frog", 0, 5, "down", g))
print(searchDirection("frog", 0, 5, "right", g))
Output:
frog found at (0, 5) going down
True
False