Segmentation fault in recursive backtracking maze generator C++ - c++

Question

I am trying to create a maze generator using recursive backtracking and have come across a problem that I just can't get my head around. For some reason my move function is returning the value "18446744073709551615". This is (of course) leading to a segmentation fault. Why is my move function returning such a large value when my move function can only increase or decrease the value by 2?
bool maze::generate(size_t x, size_t y) {
//mark the position as visited
labyrinth.s[y][x] = true;
//print to see progress
//this->print();
//if the position is not out of bounds
if (x < 0 || x > labyrinth.MAXWIDTH - 1 || y < 0 || y > labyrinth.MAXHIGHT - 1) {
//if the position is the endpoint return true
if (labyrinth.v[y][x - 1] == 'W' || labyrinth.v[y][x + 1] == 'W' || labyrinth.v[y - 1][x] == 'W' || labyrinth.v[y + 1][x] == 'W') {
return true;
}
}
//pick a random direction
do {
d = size_t(rand() % 4);
} while(!this->pos_test(x, y, d));
std::cout << x << ' ' << y << std::endl;
if (d == UP) {
y = move(x, y, UP);
}
else if (d == DOWN) {
y = move(x, y, DOWN);
}
else if (d == RIGHT) {
x = move(x, y, RIGHT);
}
else if (d == LEFT) {
x = move(x, y, LEFT);
}
else{
}
std::cout << x << ' ' << y << std::endl;
//recursively generate the maze
if (this->generate(x, y)) {
return true;
}
}
void maze::initialize(size_t x, size_t y) {
//set the maxhight and the maxwidth to y and x
labyrinth.MAXHIGHT = y;
labyrinth.MAXWIDTH = x;
//set all elements in the vector to #
for (size_t i = 0; i < labyrinth.MAXHIGHT; i++) {
std::vector<char> temp;
for (size_t j = 0; j < labyrinth.MAXWIDTH; j++) {
temp.push_back(labyrinth.wall);
}
labyrinth.v.push_back(temp);
}
for (size_t i = 0; i < labyrinth.MAXHIGHT; i++) {
for (size_t j = 0; j < labyrinth.MAXWIDTH; j++) {
if (j % 2 == 1 && i % 2 == 1 && j != labyrinth.MAXWIDTH - 1 && j != 0 && i != labyrinth.MAXHIGHT - 1 && i != 0) {
labyrinth.v[j][i] = labyrinth.path;
}
}
}
//set all posistions to unvisited
for (size_t i = 0; i < labyrinth.MAXHIGHT; i++) {
std::vector<bool> temp2;
for (size_t j = 0; j < labyrinth.MAXWIDTH; j++) {
temp2.push_back(false);
}
labyrinth.s.push_back(temp2);
}
//setup the start point
labyrinth.v[0][1] = 'S';
//setup the endpoint
labyrinth.v[labyrinth.MAXHIGHT - 2][labyrinth.MAXWIDTH - 1] = 'W';
}
//if a position has been visited or if not possible to go to return true
bool maze::pos_test(size_t x, size_t y, size_t d) const {
//if the position is out of bounds return false
if (x < 0 || y < 0 || x > labyrinth.MAXWIDTH - 1 || y > labyrinth.MAXHIGHT - 1) {
return true;
}
else if (x == 1 && d == LEFT) {
return true;
}
else if (y == 1 && d == UP) {
return true;
}
else if (x == labyrinth.MAXWIDTH - 1 && d == RIGHT) {
return true;
}
else if (y == labyrinth.MAXHIGHT - 1 && d == DOWN) {
return true;
}
else if (d == UP) {
return labyrinth.s[y - 2][x];
}
else if (d == DOWN) {
return labyrinth.s[y + 2][x];
}
else if (d == RIGHT) {
return labyrinth.s[y][x + 2];
}
else if (d == LEFT) {
return labyrinth.s[y][x - 2];
}
else {
return true;
}
}
size_t maze::move(size_t x, size_t y, size_t d) {
//if the position is out of bounds return without modifying
if (x < 0 || x > labyrinth.MAXWIDTH - 1) {
return x;
}
else if (y < 0 || y > labyrinth.MAXHIGHT - 1) {
return y;
}
else if (d == UP) {
labyrinth.v[y - 1][x] = labyrinth.path;
return y = y - 2;
}
else if (d == DOWN) {
labyrinth.v[y + 1][x] = labyrinth.path;
return y = y + 2;
}
else if (d == RIGHT) {
labyrinth.v[y][x + 1] = labyrinth.path;
return x = x + 2;
}
else if (d == LEFT) {
labyrinth.v[y][x - 1] = labyrinth.path;
return x = x - 2;
}
else {
}
}

Answer 1

You are underflowing your unsigned 64-bit return type size_t.
You are checking whether x and y are below zero, but that's not enough, because 0 and 1 will still be too low because you are subtracting 2!
The number you get is 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF in hexadecimal. This is the highest possible value for an unsigned 64-bit integer.
It comes from calculating 1 - 2. Yes, this is supposed to be -1, but because your move function doesn't return a signed number but an unsigned one (check the docs on size_t), it can't be negative! Instead, it wraps around to the highest possible number.
You can imagine this in the same way you would get ...99999999999 when you try to calculate 1 - 2 on paper ignoring the "you can't subtract a higher number from a smaller one on paper" rule.
As a side note: I guess the negative result is undesired anyway, because actually your huge number, once added to a pointer, will in turn overflow back into positive, so basically it will work the same is a real -1 in your case and the segmentation fault comes from accessing something right before the beginning of your buffer, not far beyond it, but it comes down to the same thing.
Apart from that, there is no need to do return y = y - 2 and such. Just return y - 2.