Cause of ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException

Question

Im creating a program that will generate a word search game but am still in the early stages. I have taken all the input from a text file and converted it into an array that provides the word, its initial row and column starting point, and whether its horizontal or vertical. I have started a new method that will create the basic puzzle array that contains only the word to be hidden. My problem is that im consistently getting:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 11
     at WordSearch.createPuzzle(WordSearch.java:50)
     at WordSearch.main(WordSearch.java:25)

The snippet of code that is the issue is as follows:

public static char[][] createPuzzle(int rows, int cols, Word[] words) {
    char[][] puzzle = new char[rows][cols];
    for (int i = 0; i <= 9; i++) {
        int xcord = words[i].getRow();
        int ycord = words[i].getCol();
        if (words[i].isHorizontal() == true) {
            String word = words[i].getWord();
            for (int j = 0; j < word.length(); j++ ) {                  
                puzzle[xcord + j][ycord] = word.charAt(j);
            }
        } else {
            String word = words[i].getWord();
            for (int k = 0; k < word.length(); k++) {
                puzzle[xcord][ycord + k] = word.charAt(k);
            }
        }       
    }
    return puzzle;
}

public static void displayPuzzle(String title, char[][] puzzle) {
    System.out.println("" + title);
    for(int i = 0; i < puzzle.length; i++) {
        for(int j = 0; j < puzzle[i].length; j++) {
            System.out.print(puzzle[i][j] + " ");
        }
        System.out.println();
    }
}

with:

displayPuzzle(title, createPuzzle(11, 26, words));

in my main method alongside the code that creates the words array.

Answer 1

puzzle[xcord + j][ycord] = word.charAt(j);

If xcord is 8 and j is > 1 you will get an index out of bounds error because your puzzle board only has 9 rows.

You need to make sure your words don't go past the puzzle boundaries.