Task

Write a player of the Bulls and Cows game, rather than a scorer. The player should give intermediate answers that respect the scores to previous attempts.

One method is to generate a list of all possible numbers that could be the answer, then to prune the list by keeping only those numbers that would give an equivalent score to how your last guess was scored. Your next guess can be any number from the pruned list.

Either you guess correctly or run out of numbers to guess, which indicates a problem with the scoring.



Related tasks

   Bulls and cows
   Guess the number
   Guess the number/With Feedback (Player)


 
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <time.h>
 
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
using namespace std;
 
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
const unsigned int LEN = 4;
 
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
class CowsAndBulls_Player
{
public:
    CowsAndBulls_Player() { fillPool(); }
    void play() { secret = createSecret(); guess(); }
 
private:
    void guess()
    {
	pair<int, int> res; int cc = 1;
	cout << endl << " SECRET: " << secret << endl << "==============" << endl;
	cout << "+-----------+---------+--------+\n|   GUESS   |  BULLS  |  COWS  |\n+-----------+---------+--------+\n";
	while( true )
	{
	    string gs = gimmeANumber();
	    if( gs.empty() ) { cout << endl << "Something went wrong with the scoring..." << endl << "Cannot find an answer!" << endl; return; }
	    if( scoreIt( gs, res ) ) { cout << endl << "I found the secret number!" << endl << "It is: " << gs << endl; return; }
	    cout << "|    " << gs << "   |  " << setw( 3 ) << res.first << "    |  " << setw( 3 ) << res.second << "   |\n+-----------+---------+--------+\n";
	    clearPool( gs, res );
        }
    }
 
    void clearPool( string gs, pair<int, int>& r )
    {
	vector<string>::iterator pi = pool.begin();
	while( pi != pool.end() )
	{
	    if( removeIt( gs, ( *pi ), r ) ) pi = pool.erase( pi );
	    else  pi++;
	}
    }
 
    string gimmeANumber()
    {
	if( pool.empty() ) return "";
	return pool[rand() % pool.size()];
    }
 
    void fillPool()
    {
	for( int x = 1234; x < 9877; x++ )
	{
	    ostringstream oss; oss << x;
	    if( check( oss.str() ) ) pool.push_back( oss.str() );
	}
    }
 
    bool check( string s )
    {
	for( string::iterator si = s.begin(); si != s.end(); si++ )
	{
	    if( ( *si ) == '0' ) return false;
	    if( count( s.begin(), s.end(), ( *si ) ) > 1 ) return false;
	}
	return true;
    }
 
    bool removeIt( string gs, string ts, pair<int, int>& res )
    {
	pair<int, int> tp; getScore( gs, ts, tp );
	return tp != res;
    }
 
    bool scoreIt( string gs, pair<int, int>& res )
    {
	getScore( gs, secret, res );
	return res.first == LEN;
    }
 
    void getScore( string gs, string st, pair<int, int>& pr )
    {
	pr.first = pr.second = 0;
	for( unsigned int ui = 0; ui < LEN; ui++ )
	{
	    if( gs[ui] == st[ui] ) pr.first++;
	    else
	    {
		for( unsigned int vi = 0; vi < LEN; vi++ )
		    if( gs[ui] == st[vi] ) pr.second++;
	    }
	}
    }
 
    string createSecret()
    {
	string n = "123456789", rs = "";
	while( rs.length() < LEN )
	{
	    int r = rand() % n.length();
	    rs += n[r]; n.erase( r, 1 );
	}
	return rs;
    }
 
    string secret;
    vector<string> pool;
};
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
int main( int argc, char* argv[] )
{
    srand( static_cast<unsigned int>( time( NULL ) ) ); CowsAndBulls_Player cb;
    cb.play(); cout << endl << endl;
    return system( "pause" );
}
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 