LeetCode OJ Spiral Matrix II

Given an integer n, generate a square matrix filled with elements from 1 to n2 in spiral order.

For example,
Given n = 3,

You should return the following matrix:

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

class Solution {
public:
    vector<vector<int> > generateMatrix(int n) {
        vector<int> row(n, 0);
        vector<vector<int> > ans(n, row);
        int nowNum = 1, maxNum = n * n, i = 0, j = 0;
        int dir[4][2] = {0, 1, 1, 0, 0, -1, -1, 0}, nowDir = 0;
        while (nowNum <= n * n) {
            if (i + dir[nowDir][0] < 0
                || i + dir[nowDir][0] >= n
                || j + dir[nowDir][1] < 0
                || j + dir[nowDir][1] >= n
                || ans[i + dir[nowDir][0]][j + dir[nowDir][1]] != 0) {
                nowDir = (nowDir + 1) % 4;  // change the direction
            }
            ans[i][j] = nowNum++;
            i += dir[nowDir][0];
            j += dir[nowDir][1];
        }
        return ans;
    }
};