Problem 52. What is the next step in Conway's Life?

Created by Cody Team

Solve Later

Given a matrix A that represents the state of Conway's game of Life at one instant (time t=n), return the matrix B that represents the state of the game at the next instant (time t=n+1).

Assume a toroidal game board, so the edges of the matrix wrap left to right and top to bottom.

Examples:

 Input  A = [ 1   1   0   0
              0   1   0   0
              1   1   0   0
              0   0   0   0 ]

 Output B = [ 1   1   0   0
              0   0   1   0
              1   1   0   0
              0   0   0   0 ]

 Input  A = [ 0   1   1   0
              1   1   1   0
              0   0   1   0
              0   0   0   0 ]

 Output B = [ 1   0   1   1
              1   0   0   0
              0   0   1   1
              0   1   1   0 ]

Solve

Solution Stats

Last solution submitted on Sep 15, 2019

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

5 Comments

5 Comments

Show 2 older comments

David Young on 5 Feb 2012

I think test sets should be designed to encourage general solutions. At present, the test set only has square boards - some more varied examples would make solvers seek code that is general.

mItk on 17 Oct 2016

Is there something wrong with the test suite? function B = life(A) B = A; end produces "Error using life Too many output arguments." See comment on solution 1019804.

mItk on 17 Oct 2016

I suppose the error "Error using life Too many output arguments." is due to shadowing. It seems thet test suite calls \toolbox\matlab\demos\life.m

shahriar memaran on 9 Mar 2017

I had so much fun with this problem. Thank you.

David Verrelli on 7 Feb 2018

Is there a syntax flaw in the Test Suite? Currently the first test displays with a first line of "%%A = [ ...", and in my solution (S 1435695) only the second test is displayed. Although apparently the first test is still being called (S 1435709)?