Recursive method not working correctly using JavaScript

Question

I am writing a basic boggle program. My recursive method is as follows:

function findWords(str, i, j) {
 if (j<0 || i<0 || i>=4 || j>=4)
 return;
 if (marked[i][j])
 return;
 marked[i][j] = true;
 str = str+Board[i][j];
 document.write(str + " ");
 if(str.length>4)
 return;
 if(isWord(str)==true)
 document.write(str);
 for (var ii = -1; ii<=1; ii++)
 for (var jj = -1; jj<=1; jj++)
 findWords(str, i+ii, j+jj);
 marked[i][j] = false;
}

However it only goes through one time. It stops at "if(isWord(str)==true) document.write(str);". When I comment out this portion of the code, the method works almost as expected. Is there a reason that the program would just stop at this point? Any advice is appreciated guys.

• Niet the Dark Absol: Is this function being called while the page is loading, or after?
• Amadan: Well, what is isWord? Is there an error in the JavaScript console? Why are you writing ==true?
• Bill: it is being called as the page is loading
• Bill: isWord works in other parts of the program, it just determines if the word is a valid 3 letter word by looking at a list i put into the code.
• clancer: mm to check the page loading issue change the document.write to console.log.. im curious if this is the issue

Answer 1

Try placing some brackets in there as follows:

function findWords(str, i, j){
 if(j<0 || i<0 || i>=4 || j>=4) return;
 if (marked[i][j]) return;
 marked[i][j] = true;
 str = str+Board[i][j];
 document.write(str + " ");
 if(str.length>4) return;
 if(isWord(str)==true)
 {
 document.write(str);
 }
 for(var ii = -1; ii<=1; ii++)
 {
 for (var jj = -1; jj<=1; jj++)
 {
 findWords(str, i+ii, j+jj);
 }
 }
 marked[i][j] = false;
}