marble drop game, logic not working

[cyan sedge]

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[glad fern]

The problem is that you start at just below the +, and you can only ever go straight down, or diagonally - so you just have to start straight down, and diagonally down

[main spindle]

so change my int row = 1?

[glad fern]

There's a couple methods, but that might be the easiest (plus adding a small condition that you don't overwrite the + with an o)

[main spindle]

Yeah i changed the int row = 0, and it doesnt write to anything

but overwriting the + is how i get the marbles to print into the box

[glad fern]

You also need to adjust your if (box[row][col] != '.') to be if (box[row][col] != '.' && box[row][col] != '+' ); otherwise it would exit before doing anything

[main spindle]

why a '+'?

If I start a row = 1, itll never equal '+'

and starting a row = 0 kills my program

You are comepletly right , sorry

Only thing is it replaced my '+' with a 'o' (marble) for some reason

[glad fern]

In that case, you can also do a for loop to start one to the left, straight down, and one to the right of (1, startingColumn); this is the alternative solution, which IMHO is uglier than starting at the +

[main spindle]

It works now with your logic

just that it replaced my '+' with a marble , which i assume is the last iteration

[glad fern]

You just need to guard your assignment of box[row][col] = 'o'; with an extra if (box[row][col] == '.') (and probably return false if that is not the case in an else)

bool dropMarble(vector<string> &box, int openingCol) 
{
    int row = 0; // Start at the opening
    int col = openingCol;

    if (box[row][col] != '.' && box[row][col] != '+') 
    {
        return false;  
    }
    while (row < box.size() - 1) 
    {  
        if (box[row + 1][col] == '.') 
        {
            row++;  // Fall straight down
        } 
        else if (col > 1 && box[row + 1][col - 1] == '.') 
        {
            row++; col--;  // Move left
        } 
        else if (col < box[0].size() - 2 && box[row + 1][col + 1] == '.') 
        {
            row++; col++;  // Move right
        } 
        else if (box[row][col] == '.') 
        {
            box[row][col] = 'o';
            return true; 
        }
        else
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

    return false;  
}

This is what I'm thinking should work, assuming the calling code works as I imagine

[main spindle]

Thank you so much 🙏

!solved

[cyan sedge]

Thank you and let us know if you have any more questions!

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@main spindle

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[main spindle]

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