How to create a league table for my game of minesweeper

[hillkidstr]

After all the help so far recieved I have managed to get a working game of minesweeper, the only thing missing is a leader board, so..... Could anyone point us in the right direction?

I understand that there will have to be a cin function for the name and then to write the name and score to file that will be called when the user selects the league table option.

Here is a copy of my code.

Thanks

// Minesweeper 4.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
//

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int score = 0;
int X,Y;
char name;

/* we take out the functionality of displaying the board
** this way we can display beginner/intermediate/... boards
** with just this function.*/
void display_board(char** board, int rows, int columns)
{    
    int linecharacters = 0;
    char vlign = '|';
    char hlign = '_';
    // printing the first row here
    cout << "  |";
    linecharacters += 3;
    for (int i=0; i<columns; i++)
    {
        cout << i;
        if (i<=9) 
        {
            cout << " ";
            linecharacters++;
        }
        cout << "|";
        linecharacters += (i > 9) ? 3 : 2; 
    }
    cout << endl;

    string line = string(linecharacters, hlign);
	int r;
    for (r=0; r<rows; r++)
    {
        cout << line << endl;
        /* as for our Y axis numbers, we want them at the start of every row
         * so we put them before we start generating dots or dashes
         * we can use the counter of the row-loop as the actual numbers: */
        if (r<=9) { cout <<  r << " " << vlign; } //prints space and number
        else { cout << r << vlign; }             //prints 2-digit number

        for (int c=0; c<columns; c++)
        {
            if (board[r][c] == 'e')
            { cout<<"- "<<vlign;} //dash if guessed and no bomb
            else if (board[r][c] == 'x')
            {cout<<"X "<<vlign;} // X marks a marked bomb
            else
            { cout<<". "<<vlign;} //point if not guessed, or if bomb
        }
        
        cout<<endl;
    }
}

/* we take out the functionality of playing i.e. marking fields,
** again so that this can apply to all levels */
void play_board(char** board, int rows, int columns, int mines)
{
    int guessed_mines = 0; //keep track of number of correctly guessed mines
    int X, Y;   //user specified X/Y coordinates
    char userchoice;
    
    //we need to do the following in a loop until either the player hits a bomb
    //or the player finds the mines and wins the game
    do
    {
        display_board(board, rows, columns);

        cout<<"Enter X Co-ordinate"<<endl;
    	cin>>X;
    	cout<<"Enter Y Co-ordinate"<<endl;
    	cin>>Y;
    	cout<<"Enter M to make move, B to mark as bomb"<<endl;
    	cin>>userchoice;
    	if (Y>rows||X>columns)
    	    cout << "You have entered the wrong Co-ordinates, Please Retry" << endl;

        //if user choses Move and hits a bomb, game ends
	    if (userchoice=='m' && board[X][Y] == 'b')
	    {
            cout << "Boom! Sorry, you lost this game. Better luck next time!" <<endl;
			cout << "Your total score for this game is : ";
            break;
        }
        //if user choses mark Bomb on a bomb field, set value to x
	    else if (userchoice=='b' && board[X][Y] == 'b') 
	    {
            board[X][Y] = 'x';
            guessed_mines++;
			score = score + 10;
        }         
        //possibly you may want to add a check when user marks bomb but field is empty.
	    //if field is empty and not already marked as bomb, mark as [e]mpty.
        else
	    {
            if (board[X][Y] != 'x') board[X][Y] = 'e';
			++score;
        }
    } while (guessed_mines < mines);
    
    //if the number of guessed mines is indeed the number of mines in the board, win
    if (guessed_mines == mines)
    {
        cout << "You won!" << endl;
        //you can insert a question here like "play again? next level?"
    }
}


void set_mines(char** board, int columns, int rows, int mines)
{ 
    int minecounter = 0, X, Y;
	do
	{
		X = rand()%rows;   //we use rows and columns passed in the
                Y = rand()%columns; //parameters so it will work in whatever level we use this
                if (board[X][Y] !='b')
		{
			board[X][Y] = 'b'; //Assign the bomb
			minecounter++;
		}
	} while (minecounter < mines);
}

void beginner() { //Beginner

    int rows=8, columns=8, mines=10;

	cout << "You have selected to play the Beginner level of minesweeper, Good Luck!" << endl;
	//declare and fill the board matrix, can't use regular array as we're passing
    //this to functions, don't worry about it now, just know this is an ugly quickfix.
	char** beginnerboard = new char *[rows];  
    for (int i=0;i<rows;i++)
    {
        beginnerboard[i] = new char[columns];
    }
    //assign bombs by putting the letter "b" in certain fields of our board
	set_mines(beginnerboard, rows, columns, mines);
	
	
    
    //play the game
    play_board(beginnerboard, rows, columns, mines);
	cout<<score<<endl;
    system ("pause");
    delete[] beginnerboard;
}

void intermediate() { //Intermediate

    int rows=16, columns=16, mines=40;

	cout << "You have selected to play the Intermediate level of minesweeper, Good Luck!" << endl;
	//declare and fill the board matrix, can't use regular array as we're passing
    //this to functions, don't worry about it now, just know this is an ugly quickfix.
	char** intermediateboard = new char *[rows];  
    for (int i=0;i<rows;i++)
    {
        intermediateboard[i] = new char[columns];
    }
    //assign bombs by putting the letter "b" in certain fields of our board
	set_mines(intermediateboard, rows, columns, mines);
	
	
    
    //play the game
    play_board(intermediateboard, rows, columns, mines);
	cout<<score<<endl;
    system ("pause");
    delete[] intermediateboard;
}

void expert() { //Intermediate

    int rows=24, columns=24, mines=99;

	cout << "You have selected to play the Intermediate level of minesweeper, Good Luck!" << endl;
	//declare and fill the board matrix, can't use regular array as we're passing
    //this to functions, don't worry about it now, just know this is an ugly quickfix.
	char** expertboard = new char *[rows];  
    for (int i=0;i<rows;i++)
    {
        expertboard[i] = new char[columns];
    }
    //assign bombs by putting the letter "b" in certain fields of our board
	set_mines(expertboard, rows, columns, mines);
	
	
    
    //play the game
    play_board(expertboard, rows, columns, mines);
	cout<<score<<endl;
    system ("pause");
    delete[] expertboard;
}


void leaguetable() //Table
{
	system("cls");
	cout << "This is the League Table" << endl;
	system ("pause");
}

void displayMenu() //Menu
{
        char choice;

        system("cls");
        cout << "Welcome to Minesweeper!" << endl;
        cout << "1.Beginner" << endl;
        cout << "2.Intermediate" << endl;
        cout << "3.Expert" << endl;
        cout << "4.League Table" << endl;
        cout << "5.Exit" << endl;
        cout << "Please enter your menu choice: ";
        cin >> choice;

        switch (choice)
        { 
                case '1' : 
                    beginner(); 
                    break;
                case '2' :
					intermediate();
						break;
                case '3' : 
					expert();
						break;
                case '4' : leaguetable();
                           break;
                case '5' : cout << "Thanks for playing minesweeper" << endl;
                           break;

                default :
                       cout << "Please enter a value between 1 and 5" << endl;
                       system ("pause");
                          
        }
}


int main() 
{
	srand(time(NULL));
    displayMenu();
    system("pause");
    return 0;
}

[Gaminic]

If you want the leader board to be persistent (i.e. to be saved if you quit the game and start it again at another time), you're going to have to write to a file (or a database).

If it's just internally, during the application execution, then all you need to do is keep a list of highscores. One class would be the highscore elements (name + score + any data you might want). Another class would be the table, which keeps a) the list of items, b) the amount of items and c) a chosen maximum amount of items.

The easiest, in my eyes, would be a linked list of highscore elements. Whenever a new highscore is made, insert the item in its sorted place. If #items > max, delete the last one.

[hillkidstr]

So would the way you have suggested store multiple scores and names? and have you got any idea where I would start e.g. a web link to an example?

Thanks sorry for all the questions as still very new to this.

[MrHutch]

Your best bet would be to create some sort of class that stores whatever details you want to store on the table.

class HSEntry
{
private:
   string name;
   int score;     
public:
   void SetName(string);
   void SetScore(int);
   string GetName();
   int GetScore();
};

Then I'd create some kind of table class that has an array or vector of these.

class HSTable
{
private:
   HSEntry entries[MAX_ENTRIES];
public:
   bool AddEntry(HSEntry);
   bool ReadFromFile();
   bool ReadToFile();
};

Note: Those are quickly written examples. They'll need more work/thought.