Thread: Recursion issues.

I'm having some difficulty with a recursive method with backtracking. The program is supposed to simulate a Boggle type board, and given the entered word, search the board (as well as a dictionary) recursively to see if the word is on the board. Below are the pertinent methods, the first being the main method that prompts the user (nothing more than println statements atm), the second the method that searches the board. I didn't include the methods that search the dictionary file, as they are working properly. The boggle board is stored as a two dimensional array[r][c] of strings. The variable search is also a two dimensional array, but of boolean values. You help is greatly appreciated. Oh, and one final thing, the onBoard method is in a separate class from the main method. .java files are attached as .txt files at the end. Again, thanks for any help.

public static void main(String[] args) {
		Dictionary d = new Dictionary();
		BoggleBoard b = new BoggleBoard();
		Scanner key = new Scanner(System.in);
		String word = "";
		boolean testContinue = true;
		boolean testOnBoard = false;
		boolean testInDict = false;
		int i = 0;
 
		while (testContinue) {
			b.printBoard();
			System.out.println("Enter a word (enter \"asdf\" to quit): ");
			word = key.nextLine();
			if (word.equalsIgnoreCase("asdf")) testContinue = false;
			else {
				testInDict=d.wordSearch(word.toLowerCase());
 
				while (!testOnBoard && testInDict && i < b.getSize()*b.getSize()) {
					testOnBoard = b.onBoard(word);
					i++;
				}
 
				System.out.println("inDict = " + testInDict);
				System.out.println("onBoard = " + testOnBoard);
 
				testOnBoard = false;
				testInDict = false;
			}
		}
 
public boolean onBoard(String word) {
		for(int i = 0;i < size;i++){
			for(int j = 0;j < size; j++)
				searched[i][j] = false;
		}
		return onBoard(word,0,0,0);
 
	}
 
	private boolean onBoard(String word, int index, int r, int c) {
 
		//check to see if [r,c] is on the board, and has not been searched
		if (c >= 0 && c < size && r >= 0 && r<size && searched[r][c]==false){
			searched[r][c] = true;
			//check to see if the letter at [r,c] is the next letter in the word
			if (board[r][c].equalsIgnoreCase(word.substring(index,index+1))) {
				//return true if it is the last letter in the word
				if (index == word.length()-1) {
					return true;
				}
				//search each surrounding letter
				else if (
					(onBoard(word,index+1,r,c+1)) ||
					(onBoard(word,index+1,r+1,c+1)) ||
					(onBoard(word,index+1,r-1,c+1)) ||
					(onBoard(word,index+1,r,c-1)) ||
					(onBoard(word,index+1,r+1,c-1)) ||
					(onBoard(word,index+1,r-1,c-1)) ||
					(onBoard(word,index+1,r-1,c)) ||
					(onBoard(word,index+1,r+1,c)) ) return true;
			}
			else {
				searched[r][c] = false; 
			}
		}
		return false;
	}

BoggleBoard.txtDictionary.txtBoggleMain.txt

The code you posted is not compilable, with variables in the method in question that are undefined. It would help to remove any excess details and post something compilable that reproduces your problem (eg, an SSCCE)