723. Candy Crush

This question is about implementing a basic elimination algorithm for Candy Crush.

Given a 2D integer array board representing the grid of candy, different positive integers board[i][j]represent different types of candies. A value of board[i][j] = 0 represents that the cell at position (i, j)is empty. The given board represents the state of the game following the player's move. Now, you need to restore the board to a stable state by crushing candies according to the following rules:

1. If three or more candies of the same type are adjacent vertically or horizontally, "crush" them all at the same time - these positions become empty.
2. After crushing all candies simultaneously, if an empty space on the board has candies on top of itself, then these candies will drop until they hit a candy or bottom at the same time. (No new candies will drop outside the top boundary.)
3. After the above steps, there may exist more candies that can be crushed. If so, you need to repeat the above steps.
4. If there does not exist more candies that can be crushed (ie. the board is stable), then return the current board.

You need to perform the above rules until the board becomes stable, then return the current board.

Example 1:

Input:
board = 
[[110,5,112,113,114],[210,211,5,213,214],[310,311,3,313,314],[410,411,412,5,414],[5,1,512,3,3],[610,4,1,613,614],[710,1,2,713,714],[810,1,2,1,1],[1,1,2,2,2],[4,1,4,4,1014]]
Output:
[[0,0,0,0,0],[0,0,0,0,0],[0,0,0,0,0],[110,0,0,0,114],[210,0,0,0,214],[310,0,0,113,314],[410,0,0,213,414],[610,211,112,313,614],[710,311,412,613,714],[810,411,512,713,1014]]
Explanation: 

Note:

1. The length of board will be in the range [3, 50].
2. The length of board[i] will be in the range [3, 50].
3. Each board[i][j] will initially start as an integer in the range [1, 2000].

是一道模拟的题，只是以前没有写过检查上下左右2个的题目。技巧在与对于每一个（i，j）格子分别判断是否需要消掉。用while循环判断上下左右，例如：

int x0 = i, x1 = i, y0 = j, y1 = j;
while (x0 >= 0 && x0 > i - 3 && board[x0][j] == board[i][j]) --x0;
while (x1 < m && x1 < i + 3 && board[x1][j] == board[i][j]) ++x1;
while (y0 >= 0 && y0 > j - 3 && board[i][y0] == board[i][j]) --y0;
while (y1 < n && y1 < j + 3 && board[i][y1] == board[i][j]) ++y1;

就遍历了向上2格，向下两格，向左两格，向右两格。

然后利用x和y停留的区间是否>3判断是否有3个相邻的相同。

另一个细节是要先把找到的要消掉的格子先设成0，这样子不会改变board的格局，等到所有都找到了再进行消除，不然会影响别的格子。

然后进行消除操作，就是对每一列进行move zeros操作。用two pointer，一个代表当前遍历的值，一个代表第一个0的下标。

然后用一层while（1）不断循环，直到不能找到任何的可消格子。

代码如下， 参考https://www.cnblogs.com/grandyang/p/7858414.html：

class Solution {
public:
    vector<vector<int>> candyCrush(vector<vector<int>>& board) {
        int m = board.size(), n = board[0].size();
        while (true) {
            vector<pair<int, int>> del;
            for (int i = 0; i < m; ++i) {
                for (int j = 0; j < n; ++j) {
                    if (board[i][j] == 0) continue;
                    int x0 = i, x1 = i, y0 = j, y1 = j;
                    while (x0 >= 0 && x0 > i - 3 && board[x0][j] == board[i][j]) --x0;
                    while (x1 < m && x1 < i + 3 && board[x1][j] == board[i][j]) ++x1;
                    while (y0 >= 0 && y0 > j - 3 && board[i][y0] == board[i][j]) --y0;
                    while (y1 < n && y1 < j + 3 && board[i][y1] == board[i][j]) ++y1;
                    if (x1 - x0 > 3 || y1 - y0 > 3) del.push_back({i, j});
                }
            }
            if (del.empty()) break;
            for (auto a : del) board[a.first][a.second] = 0;
            for (int j = 0; j < n; ++j) {
                int t = m - 1;
                for (int i = m - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
                    if (board[i][j]) swap(board[t--][j], board[i][j]);   
                }
            }
        }
        return board;
    }
};