In PHP, what strategies can be employed to address the challenge of creating a matrix for distributing player pools that meets specific criteria, such as alternating even and odd numbers diagonally, with no player playing more than twice in a row?

To address the challenge of creating a matrix for distributing player pools with specific criteria, such as alternating even and odd numbers diagonally and ensuring no player plays more than twice in a row, one approach is to use nested loops to fill the matrix while checking the conditions for each cell. By keeping track of the previous player in each row, we can ensure that no player plays more than twice consecutively. 

<?php
$rows = 5;
$cols = 5;
$matrix = array();

$prevPlayer = null;

for ($i = 0; $i < $rows; $i++) {
    for ($j = 0; $j < $cols; $j++) {
        if ($j == 0) {
            $player = ($i % 2 == 0) ? ($prevPlayer % 2 == 0 ? $prevPlayer + 1 : $prevPlayer) : ($prevPlayer % 2 == 1 ? $prevPlayer + 1 : $prevPlayer);
        } else {
            $player = ($matrix[$i][$j - 1] % 2 == 0) ? ($prevPlayer % 2 == 0 ? $prevPlayer + 1 : $prevPlayer) : ($prevPlayer % 2 == 1 ? $prevPlayer + 1 : $prevPlayer);
        }
        
        $matrix[$i][$j] = $player;
        $prevPlayer = $player;
    }
}

// Output the matrix
foreach ($matrix as $row) {
    echo implode(' ', $row) . PHP_EOL;
}
?>

Keywords

PHP matrix player pools criteria alternatingevenodd

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