critique my work please

[Gigemaggies123]

Howdy fellow programmers,

I've written a program for my homework, and I was hoping someone can look it over and point out whats good, whats bad, and what should I of done different.

TIA

--The problem is a 8 piece sliding puzzle, and the program is suppose to do a breadth first search, input a start state and a goal state, create the states and print the path taken.

I got it to generate the states and match up with the goal. Couldn't get the path printed.

p.s. sorry about the lack of comments, I need to get in the habit of doing that

board.h
/*
* board.h
* hw1pr1
*
* Created by Da Xin on 6/3/12.
* Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
*
*/
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

class board{
int values[5][5], blankX, blankY, parent, index;

public:

board(int _values[5][5], int _blankX, int _blankY, int _index, int _parent);

void printBoard();
bool checkUp();
bool checkDown();
bool checkLeft();
bool checkRight();
void createChild(vector<board> &_children, int &_index);
void exchangeUp();
void exchangeDown();
void exchangeLeft();
void exchangeRight();
int nextLevel(vector<board> &_children, int &_index, board _goal, int &parentCount);
void findSolution(vector<board> &_vector, int &_index, board _goal);
bool compare(board _goal);
int getParent(){return parent;};
void moveUp(){blankX--;};
void moveDown(){blankX++;};
void moveLeft(){blankY--;};
void moveRight(){blankY++;};
int getBlankX(){return blankX;};
int getBlankY(){return blankY;};
};

board.cpp
/*
* board.cpp
* hw1pr1
*
* Created by Da Xin on 6/3/12.
* Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
*
*/


#include "board.h"

board::board(int _values[5][5], int _blankX, int _blankY, int _index, int _parent){
for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
for (int j=0; j<5; j++) {
values[i][j]=_values[i][j];
}
}
blankX = _blankX;
blankY = _blankY;
index = _index;
parent = _parent;
}

void board::printBoard(){
for (int i=1; i<4; i++) {
for (int j=1; j<4; j++) {
cout << values[i][j]<<' ';
}
cout << '\n';
}
}

bool board::checkUp(){
if (values[blankX-1][blankY]==-1) {
cout << "blankX: " << blankX << " blankY: " << blankY << '\n';
cout << "check up fails\n";
return false;
}else {
cout << "blankX: " << blankX << " blankY: " << blankY << '\n';
cout << "check up works\n";
return true;
}
}

bool board::checkDown(){
if (values[blankX+1][blankY]==-1) {
cout << "blankX: " << blankX << " blankY: " << blankY << '\n';
cout << "check down fails\n";
return false;
}else {
cout << "blankX: " << blankX << " blankY: " << blankY << '\n';
cout << "check down works\n";
return true;
}
}

bool board::checkLeft(){
if (values[blankX][blankY-1]==-1) {
cout << "blankX: " << blankX << " blankY: " << blankY << '\n';
cout << "check left fails\n";
return false;
}else {
cout << "blankX: " << blankX << " blankY: " << blankY << '\n';
cout << "check left works\n";
return true;
}
}

bool board::checkRight(){
if (values[blankX][blankY+1]==-1) {
cout << "blankX: " << blankX << " blankY: " << blankY << '\n';
cout << "check right fails\n";
return false;
}else {
cout << "blankX: " << blankX << " blankY: " << blankY << '\n';

cout << "check right works\n";
return true;
}
}

void board::createChild(vector<board>& _children, int& _index){
_children.push_back(board(values, blankX, blankY, index, _index));
_index++;
}

void board::exchangeUp(){
values[blankX][blankY]=values[blankX-1][blankY];
values[blankX-1][blankY]=0;
cout << "exchange up \n";
}

void board::exchangeDown(){
values[blankX][blankY]=values[blankX+1][blankY];
values[blankX+1][blankY]=0;
cout << "exchange down \n";
}

void board::exchangeLeft(){
values[blankX][blankY]=values[blankX][blankY-1];
values[blankX][blankY-1]=0;
cout << "exchange left\n";
}

void board::exchangeRight(){
values[blankX][blankY]=values[blankX][blankY+1];
values[blankX][blankY+1]=0;
cout << "exchange right\n";
}

int board::nextLevel(vector<board> &_vector, int &_index, board _goal, int &parentCount){

if(_vector[parentCount].checkUp()){
createChild(_vector, _index);
_vector[_index].exchangeUp();
_vector[_index].moveUp();
cout << _index << '\n';
}

if(_vector[parentCount].checkDown()){
createChild(_vector, _index);
_vector[_index].exchangeDown();
_vector[_index].moveDown();
cout << _index << '\n';
}

if(_vector[parentCount].checkLeft()){
createChild(_vector, _index);
_vector[_index].exchangeLeft();
_vector[_index].moveLeft();
cout << _index << '\n';
}

if(_vector[parentCount].checkRight()){
createChild(_vector, _index);
_vector[_index].exchangeRight();
_vector[_index].moveRight();
cout << _index << '\n';
}
return _index;
}


bool board::compare(board _goal){
for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
for (int j=0; j<5; j++) {
if(values[i][j]!=_goal.values[i][j]){
return false;
}
}
}
return true;
}

main.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <vector>
#include "board.h"


using namespace std;

int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) {
stringstream ss;
string initialState, goalState, test;
int tempStore, blankXstate, blankYstate;
vector<int> initialList;
vector<int> goalList;
int count = 0;
int count2 = 0;
int parentIndexCounter=0;
vector<board> tree;
int indexCount = 0;
int counter = 0;

cout << "Please enter the initial state with a number followed by a comma (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9), no spaces.\n";
getline(cin, initialState);

ss << initialState;

while (ss >> tempStore) {
initialList.push_back(tempStore);

if(ss.peek() == ','){
ss.ignore();
}
}

ss.str("");
ss.clear();

cout << "Please enter the goal state with a number followed by a comma (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9), no spaces.\n";
getline(cin, goalState);

ss << goalState;

while (ss >> tempStore) {
goalList.push_back(tempStore);

if(ss.peek() == ','){
ss.ignore();
}
}

int initialBoard[5][5];
int goalBoard[5][5];

for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
if (i==0 || i==4) {
for (int j=0; j<5; j++) {
initialBoard[i][j] = -1;
}
}else {
initialBoard[i][0] = -1;
initialBoard[i][4] = -1;
}

}

for (int i=1; i<4; i++) {
for (int j=1; j<4; j++) {
initialBoard[i][j]=initialList[count];
if (initialBoard[i][j]==0) {
blankXstate = i;
blankYstate = j;
}
count++;
}
}

for (int i=0; i<5; i++) {
if (i==0 || i==4) {
for (int j=0; j<5; j++) {
goalBoard[i][j] = -1;
}
}else {
goalBoard[i][0] = -1;
goalBoard[i][4] = -1;
}

}

for (int i=1; i<4; i++) {
for (int j=1; j<4; j++) {
goalBoard[i][j]=goalList[count2];
count2++;
}
}
board firstCreatedBoard(initialBoard, blankXstate, blankYstate, 0, NULL);
board goalCreateBoard(goalBoard, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);
tree.push_back(firstCreatedBoard);

vector <int> nodes;

for (int i=0; !(tree[i].compare(goalCreateBoard)); i++) {
tree[i].nextLevel(tree, indexCount, goalCreateBoard, parentIndexCounter);
parentIndexCounter++;
cout << "Generated " << parentIndexCounter - 1 << " states.";
counter = i;
}

return 0;
}