We got this problem yesterday. Our teacher said if we get it done before October he'll give us extra credit, but I don't really even know where to start. Just point me in the right direction por favor. Here's the problem:
Maze Surfing
You dirty rat. You're caught in a malicious lab experiment, and dropped into a maze. Your job is to find the cheese and thereby to prove your superior intelligence of the various rodent sopecies.
Program Input
The input file PROG13.IN describes a single maze. The first line of the file is an integer, N, indicating the number of rows and columns in the maze, constrained by: 8 < N < 19. The next N lines each contain N characters seperated by spaces. Walls are represented by '#', hallways by '.', the start position by 'M' and the cheese by 'C'.
Program Output
The program should write the maze to PROG13.OUT, drawing the shortest path from M to C with a series of '+' characters. You may assume that (1) there will be a valid path from M to C, and (2) there will only be one path from M to C (i.e., no loops). The path is not permitted to contain any diagnol movements.
Sample Input:
Code:
10
# # # # # # # # # #
# . # M . . # . . #
# . # # . # # # . #
# . . . . . . . . #
# # # # . # . # # #
# . . . . # . # C #
# # # # # # . # . #
# . # . . . . # . #
# . . . # . . . . #
# # # # # # # # # # |
Sample Output:
Code:
# # # # # # # # # #
# . # M + . # . . #
# . # # + # # # . #
# . . . + + + . . #
# # # # . # + # # #
# . . . . # + # C #
# # # # # # + # + #
# . # . . . + # + #
# . . . # . + + + #
# # # # # # # # # # |