recursive problem?

are you sure only "." and "X" values are used ?
are there not any blocks ?
becos your shortest path is very simple now
no need recursion.

yes, sorry there's block between them

char grid[][] = {
{'.','.','.','.','.','.','.','.'},
{'.','.','.','.','.','.','.','.'},
{'.','.','.','.','.','.','.','.'},
{'.','.','X','.','A','.','.','.'},
{'.','.','.','.','A','X','.','.'},
{'.','.','.','.','A','.','.','.'},
{'.','.','.','.','.','.','.','.'},
{'.','.','.','.','.','.','.','.'}
};
Finding the shortest possible path between 2 Xs is complicated stuff but i really don't know how I would first locate the 2 Xs positions recursivley?

-you can simply find 'X' using "for loops" no need recursion.
later you may use recursive code for shortest path.

-once i wrote a non-recursive one. ( message #6 )
http://forum.ceviz.net/showthread.php?t=23642
look iterate() and findPathFor(...) functions.

another solution link in message #7
( run this program to see how both programs mark cells
using distance, it has a nice GUI )

iterate() function is simple, it looks at the "right , left, up and down" cells of every cell.
if distance of neighbour is bigger than "current cell's distance + 1"
or non calculated before ( zero forexample ),
it become "current cell's distance + 1" ...
its possible to write a similar recursive function

Thank you very much, it was very helpful and kind of you providing an example code. I'll try to write that algorithm recursively.
( but why recursive ? recursive will crush if you search in a big matrix ).
I don't know my teacher want me to do it recursively. I even had a big arugement other day in other forum on recursion. It's just a big while loop with a new stack frame every iteration. It will never be necessary. Although there're certain problems which can only be solved by recursion efficient algorithms, I think for big programs looping is better than recursion.

Anyway, once again thanks for the help.

Regards,

M.Salman

@jami
that problem's real domain is "graph data structure"
( in a more complicated way ). i saw they use a Stack or Queue for translating recursive logic into loops.

its possible to translate a recursive algorithm :
forexample searching in a tree non-recursive way.
-put first Node into Queue.
-while Queue is not empty ,
--pop() a Node
--check, if its the one you search. ( if its , job finished )
--put all child nodes of that node into Queue.
-

functional programming languages such as lisp, schema
(and programmers in that camp) are good in recursive programming.
but other languages ( and programmers ) dont feel comfort with it.

You could use the A* (A-star) algorithm. Though a bit more complex than a few loops. Here's what I think is the best tutorial out there for this:
A-star pathfinding ( http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article2003.asp)