Tic-tac-toe (also known as noughts and crosses or Xs and Os, respectively) is a paper and pencil game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. The player who succeeds in placing three of their marks in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row wins the game.
Here we will see how this game can be constructed using Java language.
This program is written in core Java and there is no User Interface. So it is a console based program.
The building steps for this game could be summarized as given below:
- First initialize two persons
- Get the input from one person
- Mark the position
- Get the input from another person
- Mark the position
- Now continuously get inputs and check for winner, game over etc.
The complete source code example:
package game;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class TicTacToe {
private static char[][] marks = new char[3][3];
private static char[] persons = new char[2];
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner s = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Enter 1st person's tic-tac-toe mark: ");
char x = s.next().charAt(0);
System.out.println("Enter 2nd person's tic-tac-toe mark: ");
char o = s.next().charAt(0);
while (x == o) {
System.out.println("1st and 2nd person's tic-tac-toe mark cannot be same.");
System.out.println("Enter 2nd person's tic-tac-toe mark: ");
o = s.next().charAt(0);
}
initializePersons(x, o);
initializeMarks();
System.out.println();
System.out.println("Let's begin the game...");
boolean isGameOver = isGameOver();
char winner = findWinner();
String pos1 = null, pos2 = null;
boolean firstPersonEntered = false;
boolean secondPersonEntered = false;
while (!isGameOver || winner == '\u0000') {
displayMarks();
System.out.println();
if (!firstPersonEntered) {
System.out.println("Enter 1st person's tic-tac-toe mark position (x,y): ");
pos1 = s.next();
while (!pos1.matches("[0-2],[0-2]")) {
System.out.println("Wrong entry...");
System.out.println("Enter 1st person's tic-tac-toe mark position (x,y): ");
pos1 = s.next();
}
}
boolean is1stPersonPosFilled = isPosFilled(pos1);
if (is1stPersonPosFilled) {
if (!secondPersonEntered) {
firstPersonEntered = true;
} else {
firstPersonEntered = false;
}
}
if (!is1stPersonPosFilled) {
markPosition(pos1, persons[0]);
isGameOver = isGameOver();
winner = findWinner();
if (isGameOver) {
secondPersonEntered = true;
displayMarks();
System.out.println();
System.out.println("Game over!");
if (winner == '\u0000') {
System.out.println("No winner found");
}
}
if (winner != '\u0000') {
System.out.println("Winner found: " + winner);
}
if (isGameOver || winner != '\u0000') {
break;
}
}
displayMarks();
System.out.println();
if (!secondPersonEntered) {
System.out.println("Enter 2nd person's tic-tac-toe mark position (x,y): ");
pos2 = s.next();
while (!pos2.matches("[0-2],[0-2]")) {
System.out.println("Wrong entry...");
System.out.println("Enter 2nd person's tic-tac-toe mark position (x,y): ");
pos2 = s.next();
}
}
boolean is2ndPersonPosFilled = isPosFilled(pos2);
if (is2ndPersonPosFilled) {
if (!firstPersonEntered) {
secondPersonEntered = true;
} else {
secondPersonEntered = false;
}
}
if (!is2ndPersonPosFilled) {
markPosition(pos2, persons[1]);
isGameOver = isGameOver();
winner = findWinner();
if (isGameOver) {
firstPersonEntered = true;
displayMarks();
System.out.println();
System.out.println("Game over!");
if (winner == '\u0000') {
System.out.println("No winner found");
}
}
if (winner != '\u0000') {
System.out.println("Winner found: " + winner);
}
if (isGameOver || winner != '\u0000') {
break;
}
}
}
s.close();
}
private static void markPosition(String pos, char mark) {
String[] splitPos = pos.split(",");
int pos1 = Integer.parseInt(splitPos[0]);
int pos2 = Integer.parseInt(splitPos[1]);
marks[pos1][pos2] = mark;
}
private static void displayMarks() {
if (isPosAvailable()) {
System.out.println("Below positions are available in the board");
for (int i = 0; i < marks.length; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < marks[0].length; j++) {
if (marks[i][j] == persons[0]) {
System.out.print(" " + persons[0] + " ");
} else if (marks[i][j] == persons[1]) {
System.out.print(" " + persons[1] + " ");
} else {
System.out.print(i + "," + j + " ");
}
}
System.out.println();
}
} else {
System.out.println("All positions are exausted in the board");
System.out.println("The final board is given below");
for (int i = 0; i < marks.length; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < marks[0].length; j++) {
if (marks[i][j] == persons[0]) {
System.out.print(" " + persons[0] + " ");
} else if (marks[i][j] == persons[1]) {
System.out.print(" " + persons[1] + " ");
}
}
System.out.println();
}
}
}
private static void initializePersons(char firstPerson, char secondPerson) {
persons[0] = firstPerson;
persons[1] = secondPerson;
}
private static void initializeMarks() {
for (int i = 0; i < marks.length; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < marks[0].length; j++) {
marks[i][j] = '\u0000';
}
}
}
private static boolean isPosFilled(String pos) {
boolean isPosFilled = false;
String[] split = pos.split(",");
int pos1 = Integer.parseInt(split[0]);
int pos2 = Integer.parseInt(split[1]);
if (marks[pos1][pos2] == persons[0] || marks[pos1][pos2] == persons[1]) {
isPosFilled = true;
}
return isPosFilled;
}
private static boolean isGameOver() {
boolean isGameOver = false;
if (findWinner() != '\u0000') {
isGameOver = true;
} else {
isGameOver = !isPosAvailable();
}
return isGameOver;
}
private static boolean isPosAvailable() {
boolean isPosAvailable = true;
int count = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < marks.length; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < marks[0].length; j++) {
if (marks[i][j] != '\u0000') {
count++;
}
}
}
if (count == 9) {
isPosAvailable = false;
}
return isPosAvailable;
}
private static char findWinner() {
if (diagonalWinner() != '\u0000') {
return diagonalWinner();
} else if (horizontalWinner() != '\u0000') {
return horizontalWinner();
} else if (verticalWinner() != '\u0000') {
return verticalWinner();
}
return '\u0000';
}
private static char horizontalWinner() {
if (getWinner("0,0", "0,1", "0,2") == persons[0] || getWinner("0,0", "0,1", "0,2") == persons[1]) {
return getWinner("0,0", "0,1", "0,2");
} else if (getWinner("1,0", "1,1", "1,2") == persons[0] || getWinner("1,0", "1,1", "1,2") == persons[1]) {
return getWinner("1,0", "1,1", "1,2");
} else if (getWinner("2,0", "2,1", "2,2") == persons[0] || getWinner("2,0", "2,1", "2,2") == persons[1]) {
return getWinner("2,0", "2,1", "2,2");
}
return '\u0000';
}
private static char verticalWinner() {
if (getWinner("0,0", "1,0", "2,0") == persons[0] || getWinner("0,0", "1,0", "2,0") == persons[1]) {
return getWinner("0,0", "1,0", "2,0");
} else if (getWinner("0,1", "1,1", "2,1") == persons[0] || getWinner("0,1", "1,1", "2,1") == persons[1]) {
return getWinner("0,1", "1,1", "2,1");
} else if (getWinner("0,2", "1,2", "2,2") == persons[0] || getWinner("0,2", "1,2", "2,2") == persons[1]) {
return getWinner("0,2", "1,2", "2,2");
}
return '\u0000';
}
private static char diagonalWinner() {
if (getWinner("0,0", "1,1", "2,2") == persons[0] || getWinner("0,0", "1,1", "2,2") == persons[1]) {
return getWinner("0,0", "1,1", "2,2");
} else if (getWinner("0,2", "1,1", "2,0") == persons[0] || getWinner("0,2", "1,1", "2,0") == persons[1]) {
return getWinner("0,2", "1,1", "2,0");
}
return '\u0000';
}
private static char getWinner(String pos1, String pos2, String pos3) {
String[] splitPos1 = pos1.split(",");
String[] splitPos2 = pos2.split(",");
String[] splitPos3 = pos3.split(",");
int pos11 = Integer.parseInt(splitPos1[0]);
int pos12 = Integer.parseInt(splitPos1[1]);
int pos21 = Integer.parseInt(splitPos2[0]);
int pos22 = Integer.parseInt(splitPos2[1]);
int pos31 = Integer.parseInt(splitPos3[0]);
int pos32 = Integer.parseInt(splitPos3[1]);
if (marks[pos11][pos12] == marks[pos21][pos22] && marks[pos21][pos22] == marks[pos31][pos32]) {
return marks[pos11][pos12];
}
return '\u0000';
}
}Thanks for reading.