Flood Fill in Python

Question

I'm complitely new to Flood Fill algorithm. I checked it out from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_fill). But didn't become that much wiser. I'm trying to use it in following situation. I have a matrix:

matrix = [["a", "a", "b", "a", "a", "b"],
          ["a", "b", "b", "a", "b", "b"],
          ["b", "a", "b", "a", "a", "b"],
          ["b", "a", "b", "a", "b", "b"],
          ["a", "a", "b", "a", "a", "a"],
          ["a", "b", "b", "a", "a", "b"]]

Then I let user to decide one point from matrix. If in that given point is "b" nothing is done. In the other case if in the given point is "a" I want to change that given point and all surrounding or connected points with "a" to "c" with help of flood fill algorithm.

For example let's say user decides matrix[0][0]. Then new matrix would be:

matrix = [["c", "c", "b", "a", "a", "b"],
          ["c", "b", "b", "a", "b", "b"],
          ["b", "a", "b", "a", "a", "b"],
          ["b", "a", "b", "a", "b", "b"],
          ["a", "a", "b", "a", "a", "a"],
          ["a", "b", "b", "a", "a", "b"]]

Let's continue that example and say user decieds new point, matrix[3][1]. Then we would have:

matrix = [["c", "c", "b", "a", "a", "b"],
          ["c", "b", "b", "a", "b", "b"],
          ["b", "c", "b", "a", "a", "b"],
          ["b", "c", "b", "a", "b", "b"],
          ["c", "c", "b", "a", "a", "a"],
          ["c", "b", "b", "a", "a", "b"]]

I'm trying to build a function floodfill(matrix, x, y) and so far I have come up with this:

def floodfill(matrix, x, y):
    if matrix[y][x] == "b":
        return matrix
    elif matrix[y][x] == ".":
        stack = []

Do you have a way to lead me to proceed? Tried to look on flood fill examples on here SOF but they seemed not to fit my situation. At least I wasn't able to apply those examples to my code. Flood fill does not seem to be that popular subject here... But again, help would be highly appreciated!

Answer 1

Well, the idea of flood fill is:

1. Check if the point meet the criteria.
2. If it is, change it to "c" (in your case) - and invoke flood fill on all surrounding cells.

python-like pseudo code:

def floodfill(matrix, x, y):
    #"hidden" stop clause - not reinvoking for "c" or "b", only for "a".
    if matrix[x][y] == "a":  
        matrix[x][y] = "c" 
        #recursively invoke flood fill on all surrounding cells:
        if x > 0:
            floodfill(matrix,x-1,y)
        if x < len(matrix[y]) - 1:
            floodfill(matrix,x+1,y)
        if y > 0:
            floodfill(matrix,x,y-1)
        if y < len(matrix) - 1:
            floodfill(matrix,x,y+1)