closestEnemy.js

const closestEnemy = (arr) => {
  let player = [];
  let enemy = [];
  let distance = 0;
  let rowLength = arr[0].length;
  let board = arr.length;
  
  // iterate over the length of the board stored in arrWidth
  for (let i = 0; i < board; i++) {
    
    // split each row within the board into singlular elements
    let row = arr[i].split("");
    // set the length of each new split array for iteration
    let rowLength = row.length;
    
    for (let j = 0; j < rowLength; j++) {
      // look for the player's starting position
      // if the player (1) is found then push in the player's index
      // && push the index of the row on the board into player array
      if (row[j] == 1) {
        player.push(j, i);
        
      // look for every enemy (2) on the board
      // if the enemy is found then push the enemy's index
      // && the index of the row on the board into the enemy array
      } else if (row[j] == 2) {
        enemy.push(j, i);
      }
    }
  }
  
  console.log("Player", player)
  console.log("Enemies", enemy)
  
  // declare variable for enemy array length
  // this is for basic optimization of iteration
  let enemyLength = enemy.length;
  
  // iterate over the length of the enemy array
  for (let i = 0; i < enemyLength; i += 2) {
    
    // declare a newDistance for counting
    let newDistance = 0;
    
    // check if the nearest enemy is on the same row
    // use Math.abs in order to return an absolute (positive) integer
    // if the player's location minus the enemy's location is less than 
    // the row's length / 2 then adjust the newDistance to that value
    if (Math.abs(player[0] - enemy[i]) < rowLength / 2) {
      console.log('Inside Loop', player[0])
      console.log('2nd', enemy[i])
      newDistance = Math.abs(player[0] - enemy[i]);
      console.log(newDistance)
    } else {
      // otherwise adjust the newDistance to rowLength - the player's location of the enemy's location
      newDistance = rowLength - Math.abs(player[0] - enemy[i]);
      console.log(newDistance)
    }
    
    // check for distance between the player and enemy up and down the board
    if (Math.abs(player[1] - enemy[i+1]) < board / 2) {
      // calculate the difference between the player location and the enemy's
      // add it to the overall count of the distance from above
      newDistance += Math.abs(player[1] - enemy[i+1]);
    } else {
      newDistance += board - Math.abs(player[0] - enemy[i]);
    }
    
    // if the newDistance is less than the overall distance return it
    // otherwise set the distance equal to the shortest travel
    if (distance == 0 || newDistance < distance) {
      distance = newDistance;
    }
  }
  // return the distance
  return distance;
}

closestEnemy(["0000", "2010", "0000", "2002"]);
closestEnemy(["0000", "1000", "0002", "0002"]);
closestEnemy(["0000", "2010", "0000", "2002"]);