Rotation of a square matrix by 90 degrees in c++

In this tutorial, we will learn how to rotate a square matrix by 90 degrees in c++. There are various ways to rotate a square matrix by 90 degrees(We will learn other ways in other articles). Below is an interesting solution on the rotation of a square matrix in C++. A square matrix is a matrix in which the rows and columns are equal. Rotation by 90 degrees means:

Input:

1 2 3 

4 5 6

7 8 9

Output:

7 4 1 

8 5 2

9 6 3

Algorithm of how to rotate a square matrix by 90 degrees in C++

The way we will be using is by creating a new matrix.

1. Create a new matrix b[][].
2. Map the indexes of a to b by rotation. For example, in the above example: 1 in matrix A is at i=0 and j=0 and in matrix b, it will be at i=0 and j=2.
3.  Similarly, 4 element in matrix A is at i=1 and j=0 and in matrix b, it will be at i=0 and j=1.
4. Find out all the corresponding indexes like this.

Below is the figure, The new indexes are represented by pink ink. i is the rows and j is the columns.

Now, look at this part of the code.

for(int col=0;col<n;col++)
    {
        int x=0;
        for(int row=n-1;row>=0;row--)
        {
            b[col][x]=a[row][col];
            x++;
        }

    }

In the first pass, b[0][0]=a[2][0](copies the element 7)

In the second pass,x increases by 1. b[0][1]=a[1][0](copies the element 4)

Similarly, the rest of the elements get copied to matrix b.

Here is the rest of the code:

#include<bits/stdc++.h>

using namespace std;
void rotate(int a[][10], int n, int b[][10]) {
  for (int colofmatrix = 0; colofmatrix < n; colofmatrix++) {
    int x = 0;
    for (int rowofmatrix = n - 1; rowofmatrix >= 0; rowofmatrix--) {
      b[colofmatrix][x] = a[rowofmatrix][colofmatrix];
      x++;
    }

  }
}

int main() {
  int rowofmatrix, colofmatrix, n, a[10][10];
  int b[10][10]; //creating a temporary array

  cin >> n; //enter number of rows and cols
  for (rowofmatrix = 0; rowofmatrix < n; rowofmatrix++) {
    for (colofmatrix = 0; colofmatrix < n; colofmatrix++) {
      cin >> a[rowofmatrix][colofmatrix];
    }
  }

  rotate(a, n, b);

  for (rowofmatrix = 0; rowofmatrix < n; rowofmatrix++) {
    for (colofmatrix = 0; colofmatrix < n; colofmatrix++) {
      cout << b[rowofmatrix][colofmatrix] << '\t';
    }
    cout << endl;
  }

}

Input:

3
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

Output:

7 4 1
8 5 2 
9 6 3

Input:
4
1  2   3    4
5  6   7    8
9  10  11  12
13  14  15  16

Output:

13	9	5	1	
14	10	6	2	
15	11	7	3	
16	12	8	4

The auxiliary space used here is O(n) and time complexity is O(n*n).

If you like this post, please comment below and also refer to:

Addition of two matrices

Find maximum square sub matrix with all 1’s