Randomly fill an array

1

I have a 2D array that needs to be intialized with each cell being a random color (1 of 6)
here is the routine I use at the moment

 for x in(0...maxGRIDX) {
            for y in(0...maxGRIDY) {
                let clr = enumCOLOR(rawValue:Int.random(in: 1..<clr))!
                sgBoard[x,y] = tileRecord(color:clr,selected:false,highlight:false)
            }
        }

just choose a random value for each cell…

HOWEVER… in some situations I need to do the same thing, but insure that no where in the array are there 3 cells in a row (or column) that are the same color…

One idea was to populate it (as above), then find 3 in a row cells, and recolor them until no 3’s exist
but that seems overly recursive

2

If you meant you would only re-color the triplets you find, that doesn’t seem onerous.

3

that was what I meant… but that might still create triplets depending on the random value…

4

Edit: never mind. Didn’t completely grasp what you were asking.

5

for those interested… here is what I came up with… and it is actually quite fast

 private func removeTriplets() {
        var found : Int = 0
        let clr = option_Game_Level + 3

        for yy in(0...theGRIDY-1) {
            for xx in(0...theGRIDX-1) {
                let clr = enumCOLOR(rawValue:Int.random(in: 1..<clr))!
                let x1=xx-1
                let x2=xx+1
                if x1>=0 && x2<theGRIDX {
                    if sgBoard[x1,yy]?.color==sgBoard[xx,yy]?.color && sgBoard[xx,yy]?.color==sgBoard[x2,yy]?.color {
                        sgBoard[xx,yy] = tileRecord(color:clr,selected:false,highlight:false)
                        found+=1
                    }
                    let y1=yy-1
                    let y2=yy+1
                    if y1>=0 && y2<theGRIDY {
                        if sgBoard[xx,y1]?.color==sgBoard[xx,yy]?.color && sgBoard[xx,yy]?.color==sgBoard[xx,y2]?.color {
                            sgBoard[xx,yy] = tileRecord(color:clr,selected:false,highlight:false)
                            found+=1
                        }

                    }
                }
            }
        }
        if found>0 { removeTriplets() }
        return
    }