Looping in a spiral

Question

A friend was in need of an algorithm that would let him loop through the elements of an NxM matrix (N and M are odd). I came up with a solution, but I wanted to see if my fellow SO'ers could come up with a better solution.

I'm posting my solution as an answer to this question.

Example Output:

For a 3x3 matrix, the output should be:

(0, 0) (1, 0) (1, 1) (0, 1) (-1, 1) (-1, 0) (-1, -1) (0, -1) (1, -1)

Furthermore, the algorithm should support non-square matrices, so for example for a 5x3 matrix, the output should be:

(0, 0) (1, 0) (1, 1) (0, 1) (-1, 1) (-1, 0) (-1, -1) (0, -1) (1, -1) (2, -1) (2, 0) (2, 1) (-2, 1) (-2, 0) (-2, -1)

Answer 1

Here's a JavaScript (ES6) iterative solution to this problem:

let spiralMatrix = (x, y, step, count) => {
    let distance = 0;
    let range = 1;
    let direction = 'up';

    for ( let i = 0; i < count; i++ ) {
        console.log('x: '+x+', y: '+y);
        distance++;
        switch ( direction ) {
            case 'up':
                y += step;
                if ( distance >= range ) {
                    direction = 'right';
                    distance = 0;
                }
                break;
            case 'right':
                x += step;
                if ( distance >= range ) {
                    direction = 'bottom';
                    distance = 0;
                    range += 1;
                }
                break;
            case 'bottom':
                y -= step;
                if ( distance >= range ) {
                    direction = 'left';
                    distance = 0;
                }
                break;
            case 'left':
                x -= step;
                if ( distance >= range ) {
                    direction = 'up';
                    distance = 0;
                    range += 1;
                }
                break;
            default:
                break;
        }
    }
}

Here's how to use it:

spiralMatrix(0, 0, 1, 100);

This will create an outward spiral, starting at coordinates (x = 0, y = 0) with step of 1 and a total number of items equals to 100. The implementation always starts the movement in the following order - up, right, bottom, left.

Please, note that this implementation creates square matrices.

Answer 2

Here's a O(1) solution to find the position in a squared spiral : Fiddle

function spiral(n) {
    // given n an index in the squared spiral
    // p the sum of point in inner square
    // a the position on the current square
    // n = p + a

    var r = Math.floor((Math.sqrt(n + 1) - 1) / 2) + 1;

    // compute radius : inverse arithmetic sum of 8+16+24+...=
    var p = (8 * r * (r - 1)) / 2;
    // compute total point on radius -1 : arithmetic sum of 8+16+24+...

    var en = r * 2;
    // points by face

    var a = (1 + n - p) % (r * 8);
    // compute de position and shift it so the first is (-r,-r) but (-r+1,-r)
    // so square can connect

    var pos = [0, 0, r];
    switch (Math.floor(a / (r * 2))) {
        // find the face : 0 top, 1 right, 2, bottom, 3 left
        case 0:
            {
                pos[0] = a - r;
                pos[1] = -r;
            }
            break;
        case 1:
            {
                pos[0] = r;
                pos[1] = (a % en) - r;

            }
            break;
        case 2:
            {
                pos[0] = r - (a % en);
                pos[1] = r;
            }
            break;
        case 3:
            {
                pos[0] = -r;
                pos[1] = r - (a % en);
            }
            break;
    }
    console.log("n : ", n, " r : ", r, " p : ", p, " a : ", a, "  -->  ", pos);
    return pos;
}

Answer 3

Here's an answer in Julia: my approach is to assign the points in concentric squares ('spirals') around the origin (0,0), where each square has side length m = 2n + 1, to produce an ordered dictionary with location numbers (starting from 1 for the origin) as keys and the corresponding coordinate as value.

Since the maximum location per spiral is at (n,-n), the rest of the points can be found by simply working backward from this point, i.e. from the bottom right corner by m-1 units, then repeating for the perpendicular 3 segments of m-1 units.

This process is written in reverse order below, corresponding to how the spiral proceeds rather than this reverse counting process, i.e. the ra [right ascending] segment is decremented by 3(m+1), then la [left ascending] by 2(m+1), and so on - hopefully this is self-explanatory.

import DataStructures: OrderedDict, merge

function spiral(loc::Int)
    s = sqrt(loc-1) |> floor |> Int
    if s % 2 == 0
        s -= 1
    end
    s = (s+1)/2 |> Int
    return s
end

function perimeter(n::Int)
    n > 0 || return OrderedDict([1,[0,0]])
    m = 2n + 1 # width/height of the spiral [square] indexed by n
    # loc_max = m^2
    # loc_min = (2n-1)^2 + 1
    ra = [[m^2-(y+3m-3), [n,n-y]] for y in (m-2):-1:0]
    la = [[m^2-(y+2m-2), [y-n,n]] for y in (m-2):-1:0]
    ld = [[m^2-(y+m-1), [-n,y-n]] for y in (m-2):-1:0]
    rd = [[m^2-y, [n-y,-n]] for y in (m-2):-1:0]
    return OrderedDict(vcat(ra,la,ld,rd))
end

function walk(n)
    cds = OrderedDict(1 => [0,0])
    n > 0 || return cds
    for i in 1:n
        cds = merge(cds, perimeter(i))
    end
    return cds
end

So for your first example, plugging m = 3 into the equation to find n gives n = (5-1)/2 = 2, and walk(2) gives an ordered dictionary of locations to coordinates, which you can turn into just an array of coordinates by accessing the dictionary's vals field:

walk(2)
DataStructures.OrderedDict{Any,Any} with 25 entries:
  1  => [0,0]
  2  => [1,0]
  3  => [1,1]
  4  => [0,1]
  ⋮  => ⋮

[(co[1],co[2]) for co in walk(2).vals]
25-element Array{Tuple{Int64,Int64},1}:
 (0,0)  
 (1,0)  
 ⋮       
 (1,-2) 
 (2,-2)

Note that for some functions [e.g. norm] it can be preferable to leave the coordinates in arrays rather than Tuple{Int,Int}, but here I change them into tuples—(x,y)—as requested, using list comprehension.

The context for "supporting" a non-square matrix isn't specified (note that this solution still calculates the off-grid values), but if you want to filter to only the range x by y (here for x=5,y=3) after calculating the full spiral then intersect this matrix against the values from walk.

grid = [[x,y] for x in -2:2, y in -1:1]
5×3 Array{Array{Int64,1},2}:
 [-2,-1]  [-2,0]  [-2,1]
   ⋮       ⋮       ⋮ 
 [2,-1]   [2,0]   [2,1]

[(co[1],co[2]) for co in intersect(walk(2).vals, grid)]
15-element Array{Tuple{Int64,Int64},1}:
 (0,0)  
 (1,0)  
 ⋮ 
 (-2,0) 
 (-2,-1)

Answer 4

Here's a solution in Python 3 for printing consecutive integers in a spiral clockwise and counterclockwise.

import math

def sp(n): # spiral clockwise
    a=[[0 for x in range(n)] for y in range(n)]
    last=1
    for k in range(n//2+1):
      for j in range(k,n-k):
          a[k][j]=last
          last+=1
      for i in range(k+1,n-k):
          a[i][j]=last
          last+=1
      for j in range(n-k-2,k-1,-1):
          a[i][j]=last
          last+=1
      for i in range(n-k-2,k,-1):
          a[i][j]=last
          last+=1

    s=int(math.log(n*n,10))+2 # compute size of cell for printing
    form="{:"+str(s)+"}"
    for i in range(n):
        for j in range(n):
            print(form.format(a[i][j]),end="")
        print("")

sp(3)
# 1 2 3
# 8 9 4
# 7 6 5

sp(4)
#  1  2  3  4
# 12 13 14  5
# 11 16 15  6
# 10  9  8  7

def sp_cc(n): # counterclockwise
    a=[[0 for x in range(n)] for y in range(n)]
    last=1
    for k in range(n//2+1):
      for j in range(n-k-1,k-1,-1):
          a[n-k-1][j]=last
          last+=1
      for i in range(n-k-2,k-1,-1):
          a[i][j]=last
          last+=1
      for j in range(k+1,n-k):
          a[i][j]=last
          last+=1
      for i in range(k+1,n-k-1):
          a[i][j]=last
          last+=1

    s=int(math.log(n*n,10))+2 # compute size of cell for printing
    form="{:"+str(s)+"}"
    for i in range(n):
        for j in range(n):
            print(form.format(a[i][j]),end="")
        print("")

sp_cc(5)
#  9 10 11 12 13
#  8 21 22 23 14
#  7 20 25 24 15
#  6 19 18 17 16
#  5  4  3  2  1

Explanation

A spiral is made of concentric squares, for instance a 5x5 square with clockwise rotation looks like this:

 5x5        3x3      1x1

>>>>>
^   v       >>>
^   v   +   ^ v   +   >
^   v       <<<
<<<<v

(>>>>> means "go 5 times right" or increase column index 5 times, v means down or increase row index, etc.)

All squares are the same up to their size, I looped over the concentric squares.

For each square the code has four loops (one for each side), in each loop we increase or decrease the columns or row index. If i is the row index and j the column index then a 5x5 square can be constructed by: - incrementing j from 0 to 4 (5 times) - incrementing i from 1 to 4 (4 times) - decrementing j from 3 to 0 (4 times) - decrementing i from 3 to 1 (3 times)

For the next squares (3x3 and 1x1) we do the same but shift the initial and final indices appropriately. I used an index k for each concentric square, there are n//2 + 1 concentric squares.

Finally, some math for pretty-printing.

To print the indexes:

def spi_cc(n): # counter-clockwise
    a=[[0 for x in range(n)] for y in range(n)]
    ind=[]
    last=n*n
    for k in range(n//2+1):
      for j in range(n-k-1,k-1,-1):
          ind.append((n-k-1,j))
      for i in range(n-k-2,k-1,-1):
          ind.append((i,j))
      for j in range(k+1,n-k):
          ind.append((i,j))
      for i in range(k+1,n-k-1):
          ind.append((i,j))

    print(ind)

spi_cc(5)

Answer 5

Here is my solution (In Ruby)

def spiral(xDim, yDim)
   sx = xDim / 2
   sy = yDim / 2

   cx = cy = 0
   direction = distance = 1

   yield(cx,cy)
   while(cx.abs <= sx || cy.abs <= sy)
      distance.times { cx += direction; yield(cx,cy) if(cx.abs <= sx && cy.abs <= sy); } 
      distance.times { cy += direction; yield(cx,cy) if(cx.abs <= sx && cy.abs <= sy); } 
      distance += 1
      direction *= -1
   end
end

spiral(5,3) { |x,y|
   print "(#{x},#{y}),"
}

Answer 6

This is a slightly different version - trying to use recursion and iterators in LUA. At each step the program descends further inside the matrix and loops. I also added an extra flag to spiral clockwise or anticlockwise. The output starts from the bottom right corners and loops recursively towards the center.

local row, col, clockwise

local SpiralGen
SpiralGen = function(loop)  -- Generator of elements in one loop
    local startpos = { x = col - loop, y = row - loop }
    local IteratePosImpl = function() -- This function calculates returns the cur, next position in a loop. If called without check, it loops infinitely

        local nextpos = {x = startpos.x, y = startpos.y}        
        local step = clockwise and {x = 0, y = -1} or { x = -1, y = 0 }

        return function()

            curpos = {x = nextpos.x, y = nextpos.y}
            nextpos.x = nextpos.x + step.x
            nextpos.y = nextpos.y + step.y
            if (((nextpos.x == loop or nextpos.x == col - loop + 1) and step.y == 0) or 
                ((nextpos.y == loop or nextpos.y == row - loop + 1) and step.x == 0)) then --Hit a corner in the loop

                local tempstep = {x = step.x, y = step.y}
                step.x = clockwise and tempstep.y or -tempstep.y
                step.y = clockwise and -tempstep.x or tempstep.x
                -- retract next step with new step
                nextpos.x = curpos.x + step.x 
                nextpos.y = curpos.y + step.y

            end         
            return curpos, nextpos
        end
    end
    local IteratePos = IteratePosImpl() -- make an instance
    local curpos, nextpos = IteratePos()
    while (true) do
        if(nextpos.x == startpos.x and nextpos.y == startpos.y) then            
            coroutine.yield(curpos)
            SpiralGen(loop+1) -- Go one step inner, since we're done with this loop
            break -- done with inner loop, get out
        else
            if(curpos.x < loop + 1 or curpos.x > col - loop or curpos.y < loop + 1 or curpos.y > row - loop) then
                break -- done with all elemnts, no place to loop further, break out of recursion
            else
                local curposL = {x = curpos.x, y = curpos.y}
                curpos, nextpos = IteratePos()
                coroutine.yield(curposL)
            end
        end     
    end 
end


local Spiral = function(rowP, colP, clockwiseP)
    row = rowP
    col = colP
    clockwise = clockwiseP
    return coroutine.wrap(function() SpiralGen(0) end) -- make a coroutine that returns all the values as an iterator
end


--test
for pos in Spiral(10,2,true) do
    print (pos.y, pos.x)
end

for pos in Spiral(10,9,false) do
    print (pos.y, pos.x)
end