I am writing a game of battle ships and i would like to know how i could
randomly place a set of 5, 4, 3, and 2 unit long 'boats' on the face of the
2D array.

 Sorry if i have caused any inconvenence,

Speaking for myself, I place the largest units first and work my way down,
because it's easier that way; so you have a "for" loop here.

For each unit, pick a starting point and a direction (up, down, left or
right), and check whether that's a valid combination (doesn't go off the
board and no other ships are in the way) - keep doing this until you get a
valid combination; this is a "while" or "repeat" loop (probably the latter
is better here). Then place the unit on the indicated spot and mark the
appropriate squares as used (this will require another "for" loop).

You'll need some sort of array to hold the data on which spaces have been
used and which are clear.

1)  Given, say, a 1 x 5 "battleship", in how many orientations can you place it
on the game board?

2)  Think about the symmetry of the problem.  Suppose I have a particular
orientation for the ship, and I tell you where the upper-most, left-most square
goes.  Do I have to specify anything else?  [Or does that one square determine
the rest of the placement?]

3)  If I use the "placement algorithm" suggested by questions 1 and 2, are
there any restrictions on how I place, say, a 1 x 5 battleship on, say, a 10 x
10 board?  [The answer is "yes", as can be shown by the "ridiculous" example of
a battleship on a 4 x 4 board -- it won't fit!  Think about "not fitting", and
what that means -- that should give you the restrictions you need.]

Bob Schor
Pascal Enthusiast