liveBook · Manning

generateMaze

As explained in Classic Computer Science Problems in Swift: Essential techniques for practicing programmers

generateMaze is a book-specific function that constructs a randomly sparsified maze.

generateMaze(rows:columns:sparseness:) constructs a two-dimensional Maze initialized with empty cells, then independently turns each location into a wall when a random draw falls below sparseness. Values from 0 to 1 approximate the percentage of blocked cells, producing a fairly open maze suitable for testing search algorithms. section 2.2

Generate and print a maze

var maze = generateMaze(rows: 10, columns: 10, sparseness: 0.2) printMaze(maze) A 10-by-10 maze with 0.2 sparseness is generated and printed using compact cell characters. section 2.2

How Classic Computer Science Problems in Swift: Essential techniques for practicing programmers covers it

How deep it goes
Explains grid initialization and probabilistic wall placement, but defers pathfinding and maze-solving behavior to later functions.
Examples
Uses a 10-by-10 maze with 0.2 sparseness and prints rows containing empty, blocked, start, goal, and path cells.
What it assumes
Assumes familiarity with Swift arrays, enums, loops, functions, and random-number seeding.
What you can do after
Build it from scratch by initializing a Maze, sampling every location, applying a sparseness threshold, and returning the result.
How it connects
Connects Maze generation with cells, maze printing, depth-first search, breadth-first search, and A*.
Cover of Classic Computer Science Problems in Swift: Essential techniques for practicing programmers
liveBookmanning.com
Read Classic Computer Science Problems in Swift: Essential techniques for practicing programmers on liveBook Get the book at manning.com

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Classic Computer Science Problems in Swift: Essential techniques for practicing programmers. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.