How to find the next position in a 2D array based on the current position? [closed]

Suppose I have an array with 3 rows and 4 columns const arr = [[1,2,3,4],[5,6,7,8],[9,10,11,12]] and I give an input like ["straight", "right", "left"] and the initial position is arr[0][0] and the initial direction is "east".

[
 [1,  2,  3,  4],
 [5,  6,  7,  8],
 [9, 10, 11, 12]
]

From initial position going "straight" should give 2. And then from here going "right" should give 6 and finally a "left" from here should give 7.

How can I achieve this in JavaScript?

Answer

• Create a map that gives the next direction based on the current direction and move.
• Now for every move calculate the next direction and check if it’s a valid move, if it is then return the next value, position & direction and repeat this for every move.
• If the move is invalid at any point this solution throws an error, you can customize the error handling according to your needs.

const nextDirMap = {
  north: { left: "west", right: "east", straight: "north" },
  south: { left: "east", right: "west", straight: "south" },
  east: { left: "north", right: "south", straight: "east" },
  west: { left: "south", right: "north", straight: "west" },
};

function getNextPos(grid, currPos, currDir, move) {
  const nextDir = nextDirMap[currDir][move];
  const [r, c] = currPos;
  const maxRowLength = grid.length;
  const maxColLength = grid[0].length;

  switch (nextDir) {
    case "north": {
      if (r <= 0) {
        throw "Unable to move";
      }
      return { val: grid[r - 1][c], pos: [r - 1, c], dir: "north" };
    }
    case "south": {
      if (r >= maxRowLength) {
        throw "Unable to move";
      }
      return { val: grid[r + 1][c], pos: [r + 1, c], dir: "south" };
    }
    case "east": {
      if (c >= maxColLength) {
        throw "Unable to move";
      }
      return { val: grid[r][c + 1], pos: [r, c + 1], dir: "east" };
    }
    case "west": {
      if (c <= 0) {
        throw "Unable to move";
      }
      return { val: grid[r][c - 1], pos: [r, c - 1], dir: "west" };
    }
  }
}

function solution(grid, initPos, initDir, moves) {
  let currPos = initPos;
  let currDir = initDir;
  let currVal;
  moves.forEach((move) => {
    let { val, pos, dir } = getNextPos(grid, currPos, currDir, move);
    currDir = dir;
    currPos = pos;
    currVal = val;
  });
  return currVal;
}

const res = solution(
  [
    [1, 2, 3, 4],
    [5, 6, 7, 8],
    [9, 10, 11, 12],
  ],
  [0, 0],
  "east",
  ["straight", "right", "left"]
);

console.log(res); // 7

Note the solution assumes that you’ve a valid grid (same no. of columns for all rows) and it has at least one row.