I\'m implementing the Chessboard class to represent the chessboard. I\'ve to imp

Question

I'm implementing the Chessboard class to represent the chessboard. I've to implement the transformations (reflections and rotations) on the chess board possible.

The possible transformations includes the combination of:

1. Vertical Reflection
2. Horizontal Reflection
3. Diagonal Reflection
Thus, we've 8 possible transformations for chess board.

There are 64 squares on the Chessboard numbered [0..63].

Thus, to represent the total resulting values after the transformations is 8*64 (No.of Transformations * Chessboard_Size).

There are two fundamental ways to represent the transformed_board using Arrays:

One-Dimensional Array with transformed_board[8*64]
Two-Dimensional Array with transformed_board[8][64]
Questions:

Which approach is better?
What are the pros and cons of each approach?
How will effect the performance with respect to time factor?

Explanation / Answer

Well, in your problem space the 64 squares are formed from the 8 x 8 size of your board, so the most adequate design would be to use a 3 dimensional array:

transformed_board[8][8][8]
Performance will depend on your implementation, the operations you will do on that array and the compiler you are using. Don't fall into the trap of premature optimization. Best approach here probably is to provide accessor functions like

SQUARE_TYPE GetSquare(int row,int column, int symmetry)
{
assert(0<=row && row<MAX_ROWS);
assert(0<=column && column <MAX_COLUMNS);
assert(0<=symmetry&& symmetry<MAX_SYMMETRIES);
return transformed_board[row][col][symmetry];
}
and restrict all access to the board to the use of that accessors. Then it will be easy to change the decision about the array dimensions used for transformed_board later, just by changing your accessor functions.

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