For this task, we have devised an extension of the popular game Four-in-a-Row. Like the original game, our expansion is also played on a rectangular $$m \times n$$ board game with $$m$$ rows and $$n$$ columns. In contrast to the original Four-in-a-Row game, our expansion can be played with more than two players. Each player must choose a letter of the alphabet to denote his pieces.
In the example below, we illustrate the extension of the Four-in-a-Row game with a fully stocked $$9 \ times 8$$ game board on which four players have respectively chosen the letters A, C, G and T as their playing pieces. That's why we named this variant DNA-in-a-row.
Write a function
findSolutions(gameboard)that indicates the position of a Four-in-a-Row on a given board. The
board must be passed to this function as a list of lists. Here, each
element of the outer list is a row of the board. A row of the board is
represented as a list of capital letters.
The function must return a tuple with all Four-in-a-Row positions.
Each element of this tuple is a Four-in-a-Row position which is also
presented as a tuple itself. Each set of four horizontal consecutive
identical characters is represented as a tuple, the first two elements
indicating the row and column number of the leftmost position of the
series of four consecutive identical characters. The third element of
the tuple is composed of the string horizontally .
Analogously, each set of four vertically successive identical
characters is represented as a tuple of three elements, of which the
third element contains the string vertically, and the
first two elements correspond with the row and column number of the
upper position in the series of four successive equal letters. The
elements of the tuple that is returned as the result of the function
must be sorted in ascending order.
Write a function
showSolutions(gameboard)that prints both a formatted representation of the board as all
positions with Four-in-a-Row to the output. To this function, a game
board must be passed as argument, which is the same size as described
in the findSolutions function.
The printing of the board should be in the format illustrated in the
example below. On the first row of the column numbers are printed
above the columns of the board. The following rows each start with a
row number followed by the letters that are printed to the
corresponding positions of the board. Row and column numbers are
indexed from 1. For each column of the output five character positions
are reserved to be filled right-aligned.
After showing the game board the positions with four consecutive identical characters are also printed. Obviously the function showSolutions will have to make use of the findSolutions function. The positions should be printed in the same order like in the tuple that is returned by the findSolutions function. The row and column number of each solution is written on a separate line, followed by a space and the direction of the solution (horizontally or vertically).
>>> game board = [['T', 'T', 'T', 'A', 'C', 'C', 'G', 'A'],
... ['C', 'C', 'G', 'T', 'C', 'G', 'T', 'A'],
... ['T', 'C', 'A', 'T', 'T', 'G', 'T', 'G'],
... ['T', 'G', 'C', 'G', 'C', 'G', 'C', 'G'],
... ['C', 'G', 'T', 'G', 'C', 'C', 'G', 'T'],
... ['A', 'T', 'T', 'T', 'T', 'G', 'G', 'C'],
... ['A', 'T', 'C', 'T', 'T', 'A', 'T', 'A'],
... ['A', 'T', 'G', 'G', 'C', 'T', 'T', 'C'],
... ['T', 'T', 'C', 'A', 'C', 'C', 'G', 'T']]
>>> findSolutions(game board)
((6, 2, 'horizontally'), (6, 2, 'vertically'))
>>> showSolutions(game board)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 T T T A C C G A
2 C C G T C G T A
3 T C A T T G T G
4 T G C G C G C G
5 C G T G C C G T
6 A T T T T G G C
7 A T C T T A T A
8 A T G G C T T C
9 T T C A C C G T
6,2 horizontally
6,2 vertically