Using Graphics: Making a Lander Game - Part 3

Where a certain score is placed in the table depends on the score itself and whether bigger is better, or smaller is better. At first we will look at a system using bigger is better, although we will not be using it for the Lander game, it is easier to understand.

The first thing is to check whether the score is good enough to get on the score board:

Public Function InsertScores(intScore As Integer) _
  As Integer
Dim insertscore As Integer, updatescore As Integer
Dim strName As String
If intScore < Scores(numberplaces).intScore Then
InsertScores = 0
Exit Function
End If

If it is not good enough, the function exits, returning 0 for the position where the score was inserted. Otherwise it just keeps going. The only difference between the 'bigger is better' system and the 'smaller is better' system is the operator (< or >) used to determine whether the score is elegible. The best way to evaluate this in just one line of code is to use the IIf function. If you have not come across it before, look it up in the help file, as it can be really useful. This is how we will use it:

If IIf(ScoreOrder = SmallerIsBetter, intScore > _
  Scores(numberplaces).intScore, intScore < _
  Scores(numberplaces).intScore) Then 'etc

Now that we have decided that the score can go into the table, we must first find where to put it. Once we have found it, we must go through, moving all the others down, then insert it into the new position. In the middle of all this, we must also get the user's name:

For insertscore = 1 To numberplaces
If IIf(ScoreOrder = SmallerIsBetter, intScore < _
  Scores(insertscore).intScore, intScore > _
  Scores(insertscore).intScore) Then
' we've found the score's position, so move
' all the other scores down:
For updatescore = numberplaces - 1 To insertscore + 1 Step -1
Scores(updatescore) = Scores(updatescore - 1)
Next
' then get the user's name
strName = InputBox("Please enter your name")
' set the new name
Scores(insertscore).strName = IIf(strName = "", "Anonymous", _
  strName)
' and the new score
Scores(insertscore).intScore = intScore
' and return the new position
InsertScores = insertscore
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

And that's it! The score can now be inserted by using some code like this:

clsScores.InsertScores 180

Now that we can get scores into the table, lets figure out how to get scores out of the table.

Page 5 of 6



This article was originally published on November 20, 2002