Tower of Hanoi

CloudCoder link

http://j.mp/towerOfHanoiCC

The puzzle was invented by the French mathematician Édouard Lucas in 1883. There is a story about an Indian temple in Kashi Vishwanath which contains a large room with three time-worn posts in it, surrounded by 64 golden disks. Brahmin priests, acting out the command of an ancient prophecy, have been moving these disks in accordance with the immutable rules of Brahma since that time. The puzzle is therefore also known as the Tower of Brahma puzzle. According to the legend, when the last move of the puzzle is completed, the world will end.

#include <stdio.h>

void moveDisk(char* from, char* to) {
  printf(" Move top disk from tower %s to tower %s\n", from, to);
}

void TowersOfHanoi(int n, char* from, char* to, char* temp) {
  // Move top n disks from tower "from" to tower "to",
  // use tower "temp" for intermediate storage.
  if (n > 0) {
    TowersOfHanoi(n - 1, from, temp, to);  // recursion
    moveDisk(from, to);
    // Move n-1 disks from temp to the destination
    TowersOfHanoi(n - 1, temp, to, from);  // recursion
  }
}

int main() {
  TowersOfHanoi(3, "Tower1", "Tower2", "Inter");
  return 0;
}

OUTPUT

TowerOfHanoi(1, "Tower 1", "Tower 2", "Inter")

Move top disk from tower Tower1 to tower Tower2

TowerOfHanoi(2, "Tower 1", "Tower 2", "Inter")

Move top disk from tower Tower1 to tower Inter
Move top disk from tower Tower1 to tower Tower2
Move top disk from tower Inter to tower Tower2

TowerOfHanoi(3, "Tower 1", "Tower 2", "Inter")

Move top disk from tower Tower1 to tower Tower2
Move top disk from tower Tower1 to tower Inter
Move top disk from tower Tower2 to tower Inter
Move top disk from tower Tower1 to tower Tower2
Move top disk from tower Inter to tower Tower1
Move top disk from tower Inter to tower Tower2
Move top disk from tower Tower1 to tower Tower2

Diagrammatic representation

• https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Data_Structures/Stacks_and_Queues#Towers_of_Hanoi

• http://interactivepython.org/runestone/static/pythonds/Recursion/TowerofHanoi.html

Visualize it!

http://bit.ly/hanoiVisual

Play with the code!

• C++ version
• Python version

Virtually play Tower of Hanoi

• http://bit.ly/hanoiPlay

• http://bit.ly/hanoiPlay2