How do you rotate a two dimensional array?

Question

Inspired by Raymond Chen\'s post, say you have a 4x4 two dimensional array, write a function that rotates it 90 degrees. Raymond links to a solution in pseudo code, but I\'d

Answer 1

Here's my Ruby version (note the values aren't displayed the same, but it still rotates as described).

def rotate(matrix)
  result = []
  4.times { |x|
    result[x] = []
    4.times { |y|
      result[x][y] = matrix[y][3 - x]
    }
  }

  result
end

matrix = []
matrix[0] = [1,2,3,4]
matrix[1] = [5,6,7,8]
matrix[2] = [9,0,1,2]
matrix[3] = [3,4,5,6]

def print_matrix(matrix)
  4.times { |y|
    4.times { |x|
      print "#{matrix[x][y]} "
    }
    puts ""
  }
end

print_matrix(matrix)
puts ""
print_matrix(rotate(matrix))

The output:

1 5 9 3 
2 6 0 4 
3 7 1 5 
4 8 2 6 

4 3 2 1 
8 7 6 5 
2 1 0 9 
6 5 4 3

Answer 2

For i:= 0 to X do For j := 0 to X do graphic[j][i] := graphic2[X-i][j]

X is the size of the array the graphic is in.

Answer 3

Here is one that does the rotation in place instead of using a completely new array to hold the result. I've left off initialization of the array and printing it out. This only works for square arrays but they can be of any size. Memory overhead is equal to the size of one element of the array so you can do the rotation of as large an array as you want.

int a[4][4];
int n = 4;
int tmp;
for (int i = 0; i < n / 2; i++)
{
    for (int j = i; j < n - i - 1; j++)
    {
        tmp             = a[i][j];
        a[i][j]         = a[j][n-i-1];
        a[j][n-i-1]     = a[n-i-1][n-j-1];
        a[n-i-1][n-j-1] = a[n-j-1][i];
        a[n-j-1][i]     = tmp;
    }
}

Answer 4

Here it is in C#

int[,] array = new int[4,4] {
    { 1,2,3,4 },
    { 5,6,7,8 },
    { 9,0,1,2 },
    { 3,4,5,6 }
};

int[,] rotated = RotateMatrix(array, 4);

static int[,] RotateMatrix(int[,] matrix, int n) {
    int[,] ret = new int[n, n];

    for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
        for (int j = 0; j < n; ++j) {
            ret[i, j] = matrix[n - j - 1, i];
        }
    }

    return ret;
}

Answer 5

here's a in-space rotate method, by java, only for square. for non-square 2d array, you will have to create new array anyway.

private void rotateInSpace(int[][] arr) {
    int z = arr.length;
    for (int i = 0; i < z / 2; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < (z / 2 + z % 2); j++) {
            int x = i, y = j;
            int temp = arr[x][y];
            for (int k = 0; k < 4; k++) {
                int temptemp = arr[y][z - x - 1];
                arr[y][z - x - 1] = temp;
                temp = temptemp;

                int tempX = y;
                y = z - x - 1;
                x = tempX;
            }
        }
    }
}

code to rotate any size 2d array by creating new array:

private int[][] rotate(int[][] arr) {
    int width = arr[0].length;
    int depth = arr.length;
    int[][] re = new int[width][depth];
    for (int i = 0; i < depth; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < width; j++) {
            re[j][depth - i - 1] = arr[i][j];
        }
    }
    return re;
}

Answer 6

Here is my attempt for matrix 90 deg rotation which is a 2 step solution in C. First transpose the matrix in place and then swap the cols.

#define ROWS        5
#define COLS        5

void print_matrix_b(int B[][COLS], int rows, int cols) 
{
    for (int i = 0; i <= rows; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j <=cols; j++) {
            printf("%d ", B[i][j]);
        }
        printf("\n");
    }
}

void swap_columns(int B[][COLS], int l, int r, int rows)
{
    int tmp;
    for (int i = 0; i <= rows; i++) {
        tmp = B[i][l];
        B[i][l] = B[i][r];
        B[i][r] = tmp;
    }
}


void matrix_2d_rotation(int B[][COLS], int rows, int cols)
{
    int tmp;
    // Transpose the matrix first
    for (int i = 0; i <= rows; i++) {
        for (int j = i; j <=cols; j++) {
            tmp = B[i][j];
            B[i][j] = B[j][i];
            B[j][i] = tmp;
        }
    }
    // Swap the first and last col and continue until
    // the middle.
    for (int i = 0; i < (cols / 2); i++)
        swap_columns(B, i, cols - i, rows);
}



int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    int B[ROWS][COLS] = { 
                  {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, 
                      {6, 7, 8, 9, 10},
                          {11, 12, 13, 14, 15},
                          {16, 17, 18, 19, 20},
                          {21, 22, 23, 24, 25}
                        };

    matrix_2d_rotation(B, ROWS - 1, COLS - 1);

    print_matrix_b(B, ROWS - 1, COLS -1);
    return 0;
}