Question

Using C programming
How to rank this array list {'6S', '5H', 'TS', '2D'} like {'2D', '5H', '6S', 'TS'}?

the rank is followed by this list {'2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', 'T', 'J', 'Q', 'K', 'A'}?

Answer 1

In such cases, you would have to maintain different array for suit and face. And, each element in the array would have two data: face and value given as:

char *suits[4] = {"H","D","C","S"};

char *values[13]= {"2","3","4","5","6","7", "8","9","T","J","Q","K", "A"};

Now, to compare two cards, we would need:

int compareface(const void * c1, const void * c2)

{

const int cd1 = *(const int*)c1;

const int cd2 = *(const int*)c2;

if(cd1 % 13 > cd2 % 13) return 1;

if(cd1 % 13 == cd2 % 13) return 0;

return -1;

}

int comparesuit(const void * c1, const void * c2)

{

const int cd1 = *(const int*)c1;

const int cd2 = *(const int*)c2;

if(cd1 / 13 > cd2 / 13) return 1;

if(cd1 / 13 == cd2 / 13) return 0;

return -1;

}

Finally, to sort the cards, we can do something like:

// sort the cards by card suit:

qsort(arr, 4, sizeof(int), comparesuit);

// sort the cards by card value:

qsort(arr, 4, sizeof(int), compareface);