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

Davidont's excellent solution in VB.Net

    Public Function Spiral(n As Integer) As RowCol
    ' given n an index in the squared spiral
    ' p the sum of point in inner square
    ' a the position on the current square
    ' n = p + a
    ' starts with row 0 col -1
    Dim r As Integer = CInt(Math.Floor((Math.Sqrt(n + 1) - 1) / 2) + 1)

    ' compute radius : inverse arithmetic sum of 8+16+24+...=
    Dim p As Integer = (8 * r * (r - 1)) \ 2
    ' compute total point on radius -1 : arithmetic sum of 8+16+24+...

    Dim en As Integer = r * 2
    ' points by face

    Dim a As Integer = (1 + n - p) Mod (r * 8)
    ' compute the position and shift it so the first is (-r,-r) but (-r+1,-r)
    ' so square can connect

    Dim row As Integer
    Dim col As Integer

    Select Case Math.Floor(a \ (r * 2))
        ' find the face : 0 top, 1 right, 2, bottom, 3 left
        Case 0
            row = a - r
            col = -r
        Case 1
            row = r
            col = (a Mod en) - r
        Case 2
            row = r - (a Mod en)
            col = r
        Case 3
            row = -r
            col = r - (a Mod en)
    End Select

    Return New RowCol(row, col)
End Function