Question

I’m programming in xcode for fun. I got the idea to create a console app where the computer plays train (a game using dominoes) against other generated “players”, and counts up the number of times it wins and loses, based on the strategies I program it to follow. My problem is, I want the computer to create 79 dominoes for the game. I have now programmed it to make one domino and print the value of dots, just for a test. I would like to know how to generate a set number without having to write “domino *dom1… domino *dom2…” and so on.
I was thinking i could make the number of the domino an integer (int num) and create a loop creating objects and num++ until num == 79. Obviously that didn’t work. I’m 16 and doing this mostly to practice objective c and OOP. If anyone could help me out with this early stage in development, I’d really appreciate it.

Here’s the code i’ve got so far:

//obj1.h

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <stdlib.h>
@interface Domino : NSObject {
    int dotS1;      //number of upper dots on domino
    int dotS2;      //number of lower dots on domino
    bool played;    //is the domino on the board (not yet implemented)
    bool inHand;    //is the domino in your hand (not yet implemented)
}
-(void) createDomino;
@property(getter=updom) int dotS1;  //returns the integer representing the upper dots on the domino
@property(getter=ddom) int dotS2;   //returns the integer representing the lower dots on the domino
@end

@implementation Domino

-(void) createDomino{
    dotS1 = arc4random() % 12;  //randomizes the number of dots on the upper part of the domino between 0 and 12
    dotS2 = arc4random() % 12;  //randomizes the number of dots on the lower part of the domino between 0 and 12
};
@synthesize dotS1;
@synthesize dotS2;
@end



//  main.m

#import "obj1.h"    //imports the header where i keep objects, for organization


int main (int argc, const char * argv[])
{

    NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    Domino *dom1;   //creates domino object "dom1"
    dom1 = [[Domino alloc] init];   //allocates space in ram for "dom1"
    [dom1 createDomino];    //makes "dom1" a domino with upper and lower dots
    NSLog(@"TOP: %i", [dom1 updom]);    //prints the number of dots on the top of the domino
    NSLog(@"BOTTOM: %i", [dom1 ddom]);  //prints the number of dots on the bottom of the domino


    [pool drain];
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

+(NSArray*)createSetOfDominoes
{
    NSMutableArray *dominoSet = [NSMutableArray array];
    for(int top = 0; top < 12; top++) {
        for(int bottom = 0; bottom < 12; bottom++) {
            Domino *d = [[Domino new] autorelease];
            d.dotS1 = top;
            d.dotS2 = bottom;
            [dominoSet addObject: d];
        }
    }
    return dominoSet;
}

That’d be a class method on your Domino class. Call it by something like NSArray dSet = [Domino setOfDominoes];.

I would suggest against doing getter= in your @property; just name the ivar and the property the same for consistency’s sake (actually, you can drop the ivar declaration, too, as it is no longer needed in modern Objective-C).