Connect Four

A week and a half long paired project from Turing's Backend program highlighting enumerables and user interaction

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Future Additions
• Collaborators

Overview

This project was done primarily using paired programming in a driver navigator situation

Technologies

• RSpec
• Pry

To try it out:

1. Clone this Repo
2. cd into the repo and run ruby lib/connect_four.rb from your terminal
3. Press p to play and press q when you are ready to not play anymore!

Overcoming Difficulties

Diagonal Checks in both lib and spec

it "can determine a winning pattern diagonally from left side of board" do
  board = GameBoard.new
  expect(board.diagonal_winner?("O")).to eq false
  board.place_piece(:A, "O")
  board.place_piece(:A, "X")
  board.place_piece(:A, "X")
  board.place_piece(:A, "O")
  board.place_piece(:B, "X")
  board.place_piece(:B, "O")
  board.place_piece(:B, "O")
  board.place_piece(:C, "X")
  board.place_piece(:C, "O")
  board.place_piece(:C, "O")
  board.place_piece(:D, "O")
  board.place_piece(:D, "X")
  board.place_piece(:D, "O")
  board.place_piece(:D, "X")
  expect(board.diagonal_winner?("O")).to eq true
end

it "can determine winner diagonally from right side of board" do
  board = GameBoard.new
  expect(board.diagonal_winner?("O")).to eq false
  board.place_piece(:G, "O")
  board.place_piece(:G, "O")
  board.place_piece(:G, "O")
  board.place_piece(:G, "X")
  board.place_piece(:F, "X")
  board.place_piece(:F, "O")
  board.place_piece(:F, "O")
  board.place_piece(:E, "X")
  board.place_piece(:E, "O")
  board.place_piece(:E, "O")
  board.place_piece(:D, "O")
  board.place_piece(:D, "X")
  board.place_piece(:D, "X")
  board.place_piece(:D, "O")
  expect(board.diagonal_winner?("O")).to eq true
end

def diagonal_winner?(chip)
 #go through each row
 for i in 0..5
   row = i
   keys = @board.keys
   if check_diagonal_columns?(keys, row, i, chip)
     return true
   end
 end
 for i in 0..5
   row = i
   keys_reversed = @board.keys.reverse
   if check_diagonal_columns?(keys_reversed, row, i, chip)
     return true
   end
 end
 return false
end

def check_diagonal_columns?(column_array, row, i, chip)
 count_chips = 0
 column_array.each do |col|
   #do not allow loop to continue if row has been decremented past 0
   if row < 0 || row > 5
     break
   end
   #check downward diagonal if starting in rows 0-2
   if i <=2
     if @board[col][row] == chip
       count_chips += 1
       if count_chips == 4
         return true
       end
     else
       count_chips = 0
     end
     row += 1
   #check upward diagonal if starting in rows 3-5
   else
     if @board[col][row] == chip
       count_chips += 1
       # puts "chip at #{col} and #{row}"
       if count_chips == 4
         return true
       end
     else
       count_chips = 0
     end
     row = row - 1
   end
 end
 return false
end

Potential Refactor

• Make methods smaller for developer empathy and encapsulation logic
• Add wins to a database to keep track of score
• Perform more robust testing
  • Test for edge cases and sad paths

Collaborators

Thomas Haines
Casey Fazio

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