Poker Hand Evaluator in C


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Problem 54 on ProjectEuler.net was an interesting one. Instead of the usual math puzzle it had a more practical topic: Poker.

You basically need to evaluate the hands of two players for 1000 rounds, and then determine how many rounds rounds player one wins.

The hand evaluator I built was quite naive and used a brute-force approach to determine most hands. For instance, I didn’t even sort the hands before evaluating them. But hey, it got the job done (i.e., the answer was correct). Here’s the code (keep in mind the way it reads input is specifically tailored for the poker.txt file provided at Project Euler).


#include <stdio.h>

struct card{
    int suit;
    int rank;
};

typedef struct card Card;

int getrank(void){
    int rank = getchar();

    if (rank==84)
        return 10;
    if (rank==74)
        return 11;
    if (rank==81)
        return 12;
    if (rank==75)
        return 13;
    if (rank==65)
        return 14;
    return rank - 48;
}

int getsuit(void){
    int suit = getchar();

    if (suit==68)
        return 0;
    if (suit==83)
        return 1;
    if (suit==72)
        return 2;
    return 3;
}

int search(Card hand[],int n){
    int i;

    for (i=0;i<5;i++){
        if (hand[i].rank==n)
            return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

int isStraight(Card hand[], int *type){
    int i,min;

    min=20;

    for (i=0;i<5;i++)
        if (hand[i].rank<min)
            min=hand[i].rank;

    if (search(hand,min+1))
        if (search(hand,min+2))
            if (search(hand,min+3))
                if (search(hand,min+4)){
                    *type = min+4;
                    return 1;
                }

    return 0;

}

int isStraightFlush(Card hand[]){
    int suit = hand[0].suit;
    int i;

    for (i=1;i<5;i++)
        if (hand[i].suit!=suit)
            return 0;

    return 1;
}

int isRoyal(Card hand[]){
    if (search(hand,14))
        return 1;
    return 0;
}

int isFour(Card hand[], int *type){
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[1].rank&&hand[1].rank==hand[2].rank&&hand[2].rank==hand[3].rank){
        *type = hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[1].rank&&hand[1].rank==hand[2].rank&&hand[2].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type = hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[1].rank&&hand[1].rank==hand[3].rank&&hand[3].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type = hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[2].rank&&hand[2].rank==hand[3].rank&&hand[3].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type = hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[1].rank==hand[2].rank&&hand[2].rank==hand[3].rank&&hand[3].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type = hand[1].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}

int isThree(Card hand[], int *type){
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[1].rank&&hand[1].rank==hand[2].rank){
        *type=hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[1].rank&&hand[1].rank==hand[3].rank){
        *type=hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[1].rank&&hand[1].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type=hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[3].rank&&hand[3].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type=hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[2].rank&&hand[2].rank==hand[3].rank){
        *type=hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[0].rank==hand[2].rank&&hand[2].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type=hand[0].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[2].rank==hand[3].rank&&hand[3].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type=hand[2].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[1].rank==hand[2].rank&&hand[2].rank==hand[3].rank){
        *type=hand[1].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[1].rank==hand[2].rank&&hand[2].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type=hand[1].rank;
        return 1;
    }
    if (hand[1].rank==hand[3].rank&&hand[3].rank==hand[4].rank){
        *type=hand[1].rank;
        return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

int isFull(Card hand[],int *type){
    int second;
    int i=0;
    while (hand[i].rank==*type)
        i++;
    second = hand[i].rank;

    for (i=i+1;i<5;i++){
        if (hand[i].rank!=*type&&hand[i].rank!=second)
            return 0;
    }
    return 1;
}

int isPair(Card hand[],int *type){
    int i,j;

    for (i=0;i<4;i++)
        for (j=i+1;j<5;j++)
            if (hand[i].rank==hand[j].rank){
                *type=hand[i].rank;
                return 1;
            }

    return 0;
}

int isTwoPairs(Card hand[], int *type, int *secondType){
    int i,j;

    for (i=0;i<4;i++)
        for (j=i+1;j<5;j++)
            if (hand[i].rank==hand[j].rank&&hand[i].rank!=*type){
                if (hand[i].rank<*type){
                    *secondType=hand[i].rank;
                    return 1;
                }
                else{
                    *secondType=*type;
                    *type=hand[i].rank;
                    return 1;
                }

            }

    return 0;
}

int findHighDouble(Card hand[],int *type, int *secondType, int *highCard){
    int i;

    for (i=0;i<5;i++)
        if (hand[i].rank!=(*type)&&hand[i].rank!=(*secondType)){
            *highCard = hand[i].rank;
            return 1;
        }

    return 0;
}

int findHighSimple(Card hand[],int *type, int *highCard){
    int i;
    int max = 0;

    for (i=0;i<5;i++)
        if (hand[i].rank!=*type&&hand[i].rank>max){
            max = hand[i].rank;
        }

    *highCard = max;
    return 1;
}

int findHigh(Card hand[], int *highCard){
    int i;
    int max = 0;

    for (i=0;i<5;i++)
        if (hand[i].rank>max)
            max = hand[i].rank;

    *highCard = max;
    return 1;
}

int isFlush(Card hand[],int *highCard){
    int i;
    int suit;

    suit = hand[0].suit;

    for (i=1;i<5;i++)
        if (hand[i].suit!=suit)
            return 0;

    return 1;
}

int getPoints(Card hand[], int *type, int *highCard,int *secondType){
    if (isFour(hand, type))
        return 8;
    if (isThree(hand,type)){
        if (isFull(hand,type))
            return 7;
        else
            return 4;
    }

    if (isStraight(hand,type)){
        if(isStraightFlush(hand)){
            if (isRoyal(hand))
                return 10;
            else
                return 9;
        }
        return 5;
    }

    if (isFlush(hand,highCard))
        return 6;

    if (isPair(hand,type)){
        if (isTwoPairs(hand,type,secondType)){
            findHighDouble(hand,type,secondType,highCard);
            return 3;
        }
        else{
            findHighSimple(hand,type,highCard);
            return 2;
        }
    }

    findHigh(hand,highCard);
    return 1;

}

int findWinner(Card hand1[], Card hand2[]){
    int points1,points2;
    int type1, highCard1,type2,highCard2;
    int secondType1,secondType2;

    points1 = getPoints(hand1,&type1,&highCard1,&secondType1);
    points2 = getPoints(hand2,&type2,&highCard2,&secondType2);

    printf("points1 = %d points2 = %dn",points1,points2);

    if (points1>points2)
        return 1;
    else if (points2>points1)
        return 0;
    else{
        if (points1==1){
            if (highCard1>highCard2)
                return 1;
            else
                return 0;
        }
        if (points1==2){
            if (type1>type2)
                return 1;
            else if (type2>type1)
                return 0;
            else{
                if (highCard1>highCard2)
                    return 1;
                else
                    return 0;
            }
        }
        if (points1==3){
            if (type1>type2)
                return 1;
            else if (type2>type1)
                return 0;
            else {
                if (secondType1>secondType2)
                    return 1;
                else if(secondType2>secondType1)
                    return 0;
                else{
                    if (highCard1>highCard2)
                        return 1;
                    else
                        return 0;
                }
            }
        }
        if (points1==4){
            if (type1>type2)
                return 1;
            else
                return 0;
        }
        if (points1==5){
            if (type1>type2)
                return 1;
            else
                return 0;
        }
        if (points1==9){
            if (type1>type2)
                return 1;
            else
                return 0;
        }
        if (points1==6){
            if (highCard1>highCard2)
                return 1;
            else
                return 0;
        }
    }

    return 2;
}

int main(){
    Card hand1[5];
    Card hand2[5];
    int i,r;
    int wins = 0;

    for (r=0;r<1000;r++){

        /* read cards for player 1*/
        for (i=0;i<4;i++){
            hand1[i].rank = getrank();
            hand1[i].suit = getsuit();
            getchar();
        }
        hand1[4].rank = getrank();
        hand1[4].suit = getsuit();
        getchar();

        /* read cards for player 2*/
        for (i=0;i<4;i++){
            hand2[i].rank = getrank();
            hand2[i].suit = getsuit();
            getchar();
        }
        hand2[4].rank = getrank();
        hand2[4].suit = getsuit();
        getchar();
        getchar();

        if (findWinner(hand1,hand2)){
            printf("Player One Winsn");
            wins++;
        }
        else
            printf("Player Two Winsn");

    }

    printf("Player One wins %d timesn",wins);
    printf("Player Two wins %d timesn",1000-wins);

return 0;
}

When I have some time I’ll work on a more efficient/elegant version.

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