Looping in a spiral

Question

A friend was in need of an algorithm that would let him loop through the elements of an NxM matrix (N and M are odd). I came up with a solution, but I wanted to see if my fe

Answer 1

This is my very very bad solution, made from bare minimum knowledge of Java. Here I have to place units on a field in a spiral. Units cannot be placed on top of other units or on mountains or in the ocean.

To be clear. This is not a good solution. This is a very bad solution added for the fun of other people to laugh at how bad it can be done

private void unitPlacementAlgorithm(Position p, Unit u){
    int i = p.getRow();
    int j = p.getColumn();

    int iCounter = 1;
    int jCounter = 0;

    if (getUnitAt(p) == null) {
            unitMap.put(p, u);
    } else {
        iWhileLoop(i, j, iCounter, jCounter, -1, u);
    }

}

private void iWhileLoop(int i, int j, int iCounter, int jCounter, int fortegn, Unit u){
    if(iCounter == 3) {
        for(int k = 0; k < 3; k++) {
            if(k == 2) { //This was added to make the looping stop after 9 units
                System.out.println("There is no more room around the city");
                return; 
            }
            i--;

            if (getUnitAt(new Position(i, j)) == null 
                && !(getTileAt(new Position(i, j)).getTypeString().equals(GameConstants.OCEANS)) 
                && !(getTileAt(new Position(i, j)).getTypeString().equals(GameConstants.MOUNTAINS))) {
                    unitMap.put(new Position(i, j), u);
                    return;
            }
            iCounter--;
        }
    }

    while (iCounter > 0) {
        if (fortegn > 0) {
            i++;
        } else {
            i--;
        }

        if (getUnitAt(new Position(i, j)) == null 
            && !(getTileAt(new Position(i, j)).getTypeString().equals(GameConstants.OCEANS)) 
            && !(getTileAt(new Position(i, j)).getTypeString().equals(GameConstants.MOUNTAINS))) {
                unitMap.put(new Position(i, j), u);
                return;
        }
        iCounter--;
        jCounter++;
    }
    fortegn *= -1;
    jWhileLoop(i, j, iCounter, jCounter, fortegn, u);
}

private void jWhileLoop(int i, int j, int iCounter, int jCounter,
        int fortegn, Unit u) {
    while (jCounter > 0) {
        if (fortegn > 0) {
            j++;
        } else {
            j--;
        }

        if (getUnitAt(new Position(i, j)) == null 
            && !(getTileAt(new Position(i, j)).getTypeString().equals(GameConstants.OCEANS)) 
            && !(getTileAt(new Position(i, j)).getTypeString().equals(GameConstants.MOUNTAINS))) {
                unitMap.put(new Position(i, j), u);
                return;

        }
        jCounter--;
        iCounter++;
        if (jCounter == 0) {
            iCounter++;
        }

    }
    iWhileLoop(i, j, iCounter, jCounter, fortegn, u);
}

Cudos to anyone who can actually read this

Bonus question: What is the running time of this "algorithm"? :P