A codewalk through a simple program that illustrates several aspects of Go functions: function objects, higher-order functions, variadic functions, tail recursion, etc. The example program simulates the game of Pig, a dice game with simple rules but a nontrivial solution.

R=adg, rsc, iant2, r
CC=golang-dev
https://golang.org/cl/4306045

doc/codewalk/pig.go

@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+// Copyright 2011 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"rand"
+)
+
+const (
+	win            = 100 // The winning score in a game of Pig
+	gamesPerSeries = 10  // The number of games per series to simulate
+)
+
+// A score includes scores accumulated in previous turns for each player,
+// as well as the points scored by the current player in this turn.
+type score struct {
+	player, opponent, thisTurn int
+}
+
+// An action transitions stochastically to a resulting score.
+type action func(current score) (result score, turnIsOver bool)
+
+// roll returns the (result, turnIsOver) outcome of simulating a die roll. 
+// If the roll value is 1, then thisTurn score is abandoned, and the players'
+// roles swap.  Otherwise, the roll value is added to thisTurn.
+func roll(s score) (score, bool) {
+	outcome := rand.Intn(6) + 1 // A random int in [1, 6]
+	if outcome == 1 {
+		return score{s.opponent, s.player, 0}, true
+	}
+	return score{s.player, s.opponent, outcome + s.thisTurn}, false
+}
+
+// stay returns the (result, turnIsOver) outcome of staying.
+// thisTurn score is added to the player's score, and the players' roles swap.
+func stay(s score) (score, bool) {
+	return score{s.opponent, s.player + s.thisTurn, 0}, true
+}
+
+// A strategy chooses an action for any given score.
+type strategy func(score) action
+
+// stayAtK returns a strategy that rolls until thisTurn is at least k, then stays.
+func stayAtK(k int) strategy {
+	return func(s score) action {
+		if s.thisTurn >= k {
+			return stay
+		}
+		return roll
+	}
+}
+
+// play simulates a Pig game and returns the winner (0 or 1).
+func play(strategy0, strategy1 strategy) int {
+	strategies := []strategy{strategy0, strategy1}
+	var s score
+	var turnIsOver bool
+	currentPlayer := rand.Intn(2) // Randomly decide who plays first
+	for s.player+s.thisTurn < win {
+		action := strategies[currentPlayer](s)
+		if action != roll && action != stay {
+			panic(fmt.Sprintf("Player %d is cheating", currentPlayer))
+		}
+		s, turnIsOver = action(s)
+		if turnIsOver {
+			currentPlayer = (currentPlayer + 1) % 2
+		}
+	}
+	return currentPlayer
+}
+
+// roundRobin simulates a series of games between every pair of strategies.
+func roundRobin(strategies []strategy) ([]int, int) {
+	wins := make([]int, len(strategies))
+	for i := 0; i < len(strategies); i++ {
+		for j := i + 1; j < len(strategies); j++ {
+			for k := 0; k < gamesPerSeries; k++ {
+				winner := play(strategies[i], strategies[j])
+				if winner == 0 {
+					wins[i]++
+				} else {
+					wins[j]++
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	gamesPerStrategy := gamesPerSeries * (len(strategies) - 1) // no self play
+	return wins, gamesPerStrategy
+}
+
+// ratioString takes a list of integer values and returns a string that lists
+// each value and its percentage of the sum of all values.
+// e.g., ratios(1, 2, 3) = "1/6 (16.7%), 2/6 (33.3%), 3/6 (50.0%)"
+func ratioString(vals ...int) string {
+	total := 0
+	for _, val := range vals {
+		total += val
+	}
+	s := ""
+	for _, val := range vals {
+		if s != "" {
+			s += ", "
+		}
+		pct := 100 * float64(val) / float64(total)
+		s += fmt.Sprintf("%d/%d (%0.1f%%)", val, total, pct)
+	}
+	return s
+}
+
+func main() {
+	strategies := make([]strategy, win)
+	for k := range strategies {
+		strategies[k] = stayAtK(k + 1)
+	}
+	wins, games := roundRobin(strategies)
+
+	for k := range strategies {
+		fmt.Printf("Wins, losses staying at k =% 4d: %s\n",
+			k+1, ratioString(wins[k], games-wins[k]))
+	}
+}