I am trying to implement a randomly generated maze using Prim's algorithm in Java.
However, after reading up on Wikipedia and other answers, there's minimal explanation on how the implementation I found actually works.
For example:
public class Maze {
public static final char PASSAGE_CHAR = ' ';
public static final char WALL_CHAR = '▓';
public static final boolean WALL = false;
public static final boolean PASSAGE = !WALL;
private final boolean map[][];
private final int width;
private final int height;
public Maze( final int width, final int height ){
this.width = width;
this.height = height;
this.map = new boolean[width][height];
final LinkedList<int[]> frontiers = new LinkedList<>();
final Random random = new Random();
int x = random.nextInt(width);
int y = random.nextInt(height);
frontiers.add(new int[]{x,y,x,y});
while ( !frontiers.isEmpty() ){
final int[] f = frontiers.remove( random.nextInt( frontiers.size() ) );
x = f[2];
y = f[3];
if ( map[x][y] == WALL )
{
map[f[0]][f[1]] = map[x][y] = PASSAGE;
if ( x >= 2 && map[x-2][y] == WALL )
frontiers.add( new int[]{x-1,y,x-2,y} );
if ( y >= 2 && map[x][y-2] == WALL )
frontiers.add( new int[]{x,y-1,x,y-2} );
if ( x < width-2 && map[x+2][y] == WALL )
frontiers.add( new int[]{x+1,y,x+2,y} );
if ( y < height-2 && map[x][y+2] == WALL )
frontiers.add( new int[]{x,y+1,x,y+2} );
}
}
}
@Override
public String toString(){
final StringBuffer b = new StringBuffer();
for ( int x = 0; x < width + 2; x++ )
b.append( WALL_CHAR );
b.append( '\n' );
for ( int y = 0; y < height; y++ ){
b.append( WALL_CHAR );
for ( int x = 0; x < width; x++ )
b.append( map[x][y] == WALL ? WALL_CHAR : PASSAGE_CHAR );
b.append( WALL_CHAR );
b.append( '\n' );
}
for ( int x = 0; x < width + 2; x++ )
b.append( WALL_CHAR );
b.append( '\n' );
return b.toString();
}
}
What is a simple explanation for what the LinkedList
is doing?
It's the queue that backs a BFS (Breadth First Search) algorithm.
See A* Search Algorithm for a generally applicable and interesting BFS use case.