Java - Stack Overflow Error

The following program is designed to move a Knight across a chess board until it has touched all 64 spaces. However, when I run it, it returns a stack overflow error. Any ideas?

public class Knight
{
static int[][] board = new int[8][8];
static int r,c,rmove,cmove, count = 0;
static int Knight = 2; //THIS IS THE COUNTER OF HOW MANY MOVES HE HAS MADE
static int i=0; static int j=0;

public static void main(String[] args)
{
//DRAW THE BOARD AND FILL WITH 0'S
for(r = 0; r<8; r++)
{
for (int c = 0; c<8; c++)
{
board[r][c]= 0;
}
}

r=0;
c=0;
board[r][c]= 1;

tour();

//PRINT THE BOARD WHEN DONE
for(c=0;c<8;c++){
for(r=0;r<8;r++){
System.out.print(board[r][c]);
System.out.print(" ");

}
System.out.print("\n");
}

}

public static int [][] tour(){
move();
if (board[r+rmove][c+cmove] == 0){
board[r+rmove][c+cmove] = Knight;
r = r + rmove;
c = c + cmove;
Knight++;
tour();

}
else if(Knight > 64)
System.out.println("Hes done");
else
tour();

Knight++;
return board;
}
public static void move(){
rmove = (int)(Math.random()*2) +1 ;
if (rmove == 1)
cmove = 2;
else
cmove = 1;

j++;
System.out.print(j + ", ");
int posneg = (int)(Math.random()*4)+1;
switch(posneg){
case 1:
rmove = rmove *-1;
break;
case 2:
cmove = cmove *-1;
break;
case 3:
rmove = rmove * -1;
cmove = cmove * -1;
default:
break;
}
if (r + rmove <0 || r + rmove > 7)
rmove = rmove * -1;
if (c + cmove < 0 || c + cmove > 7)
cmove = cmove * -1;

}

}

 

Hi cc64,

You should review the logic of the tour method because it is stuck into an endless loop. Therefore, the System.out.print statement of the move method called by tour produces the stack overflow error.

 

Thanks Chicon,

Now that I know where there the problem is, I can't figure out why the issue is there.

Below is the code that produces the Stack Over Flow error:

Code:

public static int [][] tour(){
		move();
		
		if (board[r+rmove][c+cmove] == 0)
		{
			System.out.println("made new move to: " + c + "," + r);
			
			board[r+rmove][c+cmove] = Knight;
			r = r + rmove;
			c = c + cmove;
			Knight++;
	
			tour();
		}
	
		else if(Knight > 64)
		{
			System.out.println("Hes done");
			System.exit(0);
		}
		
		else
		{
			System.out.println("old place, trying again");
			tour();
		}
	
	Knight++;
	return board;
}

Now if I take the "tour();" out of the else (right after "old place, trying again") this is what I get:

Code:

Selected move (1,2), checking point...made new move to: 1,2
Selected move (1,2), checking point...made new move to: 2,4
Selected move (2,-1), checking point...made new move to: 4,3
Selected move (-2,-1), checking point...made new move to: 2,2
Selected move (1,2), checking point...made new move to: 3,4
Selected move (-2,-1), checking point...made new move to: 1,3
Selected move (-1,2), checking point...made new move to: 0,5
Selected move (2,-1), checking point...old place, trying again
1     0     0     0     0     8     0     0     
0     0     2     7     0     0     0     0     
0     0     5     0     3     0     0     0     
0     0     0     0     6     0     0     0     
0     0     0     4     0     0     0     0     
0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0     
0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0     
0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0     

So, for some reason, the tour(); in the else statement causes an infinite loop - but why doesn't the tour in the if section cause one?

 

I can't answer you on the fly as your coding is made tricky to test because of the 2 random instances in the move method.
Personally, I would have proceeded this way :
- at each occurence of the loop, I would have defined a list of possible legal moves of the knight, picked at random one of the moves in the list and then, shifted the knight to its new location;
- the loop would have terminated as soon no legal move is allowed from the current location.