Way to query whether an object is a member of an array? - ios

Question

I'm designing a FreeCell card game and I have both my cards (model) and cardViews (view) in arrays that represent columns of cards – and then the whole board is an array of columns:
//in the model:
typealias Card = DeckBuilder.Card
typealias Column = [Card]
var board = [Column](repeating: [], count: 8)
//in the view controller:
var boardForView = [[PlayingCardView]](repeatElement([PlayingCardView](), count: 8))
When a user taps on a cardView, I want the controller to take the selected cardView's column & row (where the column is which column in the board and the row is which card in the column) and then find the card in the corresponding position in the model.
I've got my tap gesture recognizer set up, and have extracted the cardView from it:
func selectCard(_ sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
if let selectedCard = sender.view as? PlayingCardView {
print("card selected: \(selectedCard.cardDescription?.string)")
}
}
So the question is: is there a property of the cardView that is its place in a column array, and then a property of that column that is the column's place in the boardForView array?

Answer 1

I figured it out! One way I had thought of was iterating through each card in each column of the board and checking to see if it == my current card. Seemed way too clunky. But then I found array.index(of: element) and my day is saved! I do have to iterate through each column on the board, but it's still much more elegant:
func selectCard(_ sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
if let currentCard = sender.view as? PlayingCardView {
for column in 1...boardForView.count {
if let row = boardForView[column - 1].index(of: currentCard) {
print("card selected: \(currentCard.cardDescription!.string) in row \(row+1) of column \(column)")
selectedCard = freeCellGame.board[column - 1][row]
print("card selected from model: \(selectedCard!.description)")
}
}
}
}

Answer 2

Since it's a board game, you surely have a logic set for how the board should be laid out. Make that logic work both ways. That is, use it to provide layout info while creating your board and also use it to get information about your board.
This way, when the gesture recognizer triggers, fetch the tap point and let your layout logic tell you the row and column of the card the tap came from.
Now, you can directly fetch the Card from your board property with those two indices (row and column).