Decipher this bit of code for me?
This bit of code is completely indecipherable to me. It's for a Boggle application, it searches the board for a word. Problem: It doesn't work. I realize that its impossible to decipher, but that's my problem. My teacher gave it to me, and it doesn't work. It invariably returns false. So if anyone could tell me what this code is doing, or even find out what the problem is, it would be much appreciated. And to clarify, my assignment is to make Boggle. So this is a small part of it, that my teacher gave to me. I just don't understand what it's doing.
Code:
private static void findWord(int row, int col, char[] word, int startLetterIndex) {
char saveChar;
if (startLetterIndex == word.length) {
wordFound = true;
} else if (row >= 0 && row < ROWS &&
col >= 0 && col < COLS &&
board[row][col] == word[startLetterIndex]) {
saveChar = board[row][col];
board[row][col] = ' ';
findWord(row+1, col, word, startLetterIndex+1);
if (!wordFound)
findWord(row-1, col, word, startLetterIndex+1);
if (!wordFound)
findWord(row, col+1, word, startLetterIndex+1);
if (!wordFound)
findWord(row, col-1, word, startLetterIndex+1);
if (!wordFound)
findWord(row-1, col-1, word, startLetterIndex+1);
if (!wordFound)
findWord(row+1, col-1, word, startLetterIndex+1);
if (!wordFound)
findWord(row-1, col+1, word, startLetterIndex+1);
if (!wordFound)
findWord(row+1, col+1, word, startLetterIndex+1);
board[row][col] = saveChar;
} else {
wordFound = false;
}
}
public static boolean checkWord(String word) {
boolean found = false;
int row, col;
char[] wordLetters;
wordLetters = word.toCharArray();
row = 0;
while (row < ROWS && !found) { //find the first letter of word
col =0;
while (col < COLS && !found) {
if (wordLetters[0] == board[row][col]) {
findWord(row, col, wordLetters, 0); //check around first letter for word
found = wordFound;
}
if (!found) {
col += 1;
}
}
if (!found) {
row += 1;
}
}
return(found);
}
