- Qt 6.9
- Qt Quick
- Qt Quick TableView examples - Conway’s Game of Life
- Qt 6.9.2 Reference Documentation

# Qt Quick TableView examples - Conway’s Game of Life

The Conway’s Game of Life example shows how the QML TableView type can be used to display a C++ model that the user can pan around.

#### Running the Example

To run the example from Qt Creator, open the Welcome mode and select the example from Examples. For more information, see Qt Creator: Tutorial: Build and run.

#### The QML User Interface

     TableView {
         id: tableView
         anchors.fill: parent

         rowSpacing: 1
         columnSpacing: 1

         ScrollBar.horizontal: ScrollBar {}
         ScrollBar.vertical: ScrollBar {}

         delegate: Rectangle {
             id: cell
             implicitWidth: 15
             implicitHeight: 15

             required property var model
             required property bool value

             color: value ? "#f3f3f4" : "#b5b7bf"

             MouseArea {
                 anchors.fill: parent
                 onClicked: parent.model.value = !parent.value
             }
         }

The example uses the TableView component to display a grid of cells. Each of these cells is drawn on the screen by the TableView’s delegate, which is a Rectangle QML component. We read the cell’s value and we change it using `model.value` when the user clicks it.

     contentX: (contentWidth - width) / 2;
     contentY: (contentHeight - height) / 2;

When the application starts, the TableView is scrolled to its center by using its `contentX` and `contentY` properties to update the scroll position, and the `contentWidth` and `contentHeight` to compute where the view should be scrolled to.

     model: GameOfLifeModel {
         id: gameOfLifeModel
     }

#### The C++ Model

     class GameOfLifeModel : public QAbstractTableModel
     {
         Q_OBJECT
         QML_ELEMENT

         Q_ENUMS(Roles)
     public:
         enum Roles {
             CellRole
         };

         QHash<int, QByteArray> roleNames() const override {
             return {
                 { CellRole, "value" }
             };
         }

         explicit GameOfLifeModel(QObject *parent = nullptr);

         int rowCount(const QModelIndex &parent = QModelIndex()) const override;
         int columnCount(const QModelIndex &parent = QModelIndex()) const override;

         QVariant data(const QModelIndex &index, int role = Qt::DisplayRole) const override;
         bool setData(const QModelIndex &index, const QVariant &value,
                      int role = Qt::EditRole) override;

         Qt::ItemFlags flags(const QModelIndex &index) const override;

         Q_INVOKABLE void nextStep();
         Q_INVOKABLE bool loadFile(const QString &fileName);
         Q_INVOKABLE void loadPattern(const QString &plainText);
         Q_INVOKABLE void clear();

     private:
         static constexpr int width = 256;
         static constexpr int height = 256;
         static constexpr int size = width * height;

         using StateContainer = std::array<bool, size>;
         StateContainer m_currentState;

         int cellNeighborsCount(const QPoint &cellCoordinates) const;
         static bool areCellCoordinatesValid(const QPoint &coordinates);
         static QPoint cellCoordinatesFromIndex(int cellIndex);
         static std::size_t cellIndex(const QPoint &coordinates);
     };

The `GameOfLifeModel` class extends QAbstractTableModel so it can be used as the model of our TableView component. Therefore, it needs to implement some functions so the TableView component can interact with the model. As you can see in the `private` part of the class, the model uses a fixed-size array to store the current state of all the cells. We also use the QML_ELEMENT macro in order to expose the class to QML.

     int GameOfLifeModel::rowCount(const QModelIndex &parent) const
     {
         if (parent.isValid())
             return 0;

         return height;
     }

     int GameOfLifeModel::columnCount(const QModelIndex &parent) const
     {
         if (parent.isValid())
             return 0;

         return width;
     }

Here, the `rowCount` and `columnCount` methods are implemented so the TableView component can know the size of the table. It simply returns the values of the `width` and `height` constants.

     QVariant GameOfLifeModel::data(const QModelIndex &index, int role) const
     {
         if (!index.isValid() || role != CellRole)
             return QVariant();

         return QVariant(m_currentState[cellIndex({index.column(), index.row()})]);
     }

This method is called when the TableView component requests some data from the model. In our example, we only have one piece of data by cell: whether it is alive or not. This information is represented by the `CellRole` value of the `Roles` enum in our C++ code; this corresponds to the `value` property in the QML code (the link between these two is made by the `roleNames()` function of our C++ class).

The `GameOfLifeModel` class can identify which cell was the data requested from with the `index` parameter, which is a QModelIndex that contains a row and a column.

#### Updating the Data

     bool GameOfLifeModel::setData(const QModelIndex &index, const QVariant &value, int role)
     {
         if (role != CellRole || data(index, role) == value)
             return false;

         m_currentState[cellIndex({index.column(), index.row()})] = value.toBool();
         emit dataChanged(index, index, {role});

         return true;
     }

The `setData` method is called when a property’s value is set from the QML interface: in our example, it toggles a cell’s state when it is clicked. In the same way as the `data()` function does, this method receives an `index` and a `role` parameter. Additionally, the new value is passed as a QVariant, that we convert to a boolean using the `toBool` function.

When we update the internal state of our model object, we need to emit a `dataChanged` signal to tell the TableView component that it needs to update the displayed data. In this case, only the cell that was clicked is affected, thus the range of the table that has to be updated begins and ends at the cell’s index.

     void GameOfLifeModel::nextStep()
     {
         StateContainer newValues;

         for (std::size_t i = 0; i < size; ++i) {
             bool currentState = m_currentState[i];

             int cellNeighborsCount = this->cellNeighborsCount(cellCoordinatesFromIndex(static_cast<int>(i)));

             newValues[i] = currentState == true
                     ? cellNeighborsCount == 2 || cellNeighborsCount == 3
                     : cellNeighborsCount == 3;
         }

         m_currentState = std::move(newValues);

         emit dataChanged(index(0, 0), index(height - 1, width - 1), {CellRole});
     }

This function can be called directly from the QML code, because it contains the Q_INVOKABLE macro in its definition. It plays an iteration of the game, either when the user clicks the Next button or when the Timer emits a `triggered()` signal.

Following the Conway’s Game of Life rules, a new state is computed for each cell depending on the current state of its neighbors. When the new state has been computed for the whole grid, it replaces the current state and a dataChanged signal is emitted for the whole table.

     bool GameOfLifeModel::loadFile(const QString &fileName)
     {
         QFile file(fileName);
         if (!file.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly))
             return false;

         QTextStream in(&file);
         loadPattern(in.readAll());

         return true;
     }

     void GameOfLifeModel::loadPattern(const QString &plainText)
     {
         clear();

         QStringList rows = plainText.split("\n");
         QSize patternSize(0, rows.count());
         for (QString row : rows) {
             if (row.size() > patternSize.width())
                 patternSize.setWidth(row.size());
         }

         QPoint patternLocation((width - patternSize.width()) / 2, (height - patternSize.height()) / 2);

         for (int y = 0; y < patternSize.height(); ++y) {
             const QString line = rows[y];

             for (int x = 0; x < line.length(); ++x) {
                 QPoint cellPosition(x + patternLocation.x(), y + patternLocation.y());
                 m_currentState[cellIndex(cellPosition)] = line[x] == 'O';
             }
         }

         emit dataChanged(index(0, 0), index(height - 1, width - 1), {CellRole});
     }

When the application opens, a pattern is loaded to demonstrate how Conway’s Game of Life works. These two functions load the file where the pattern is stored and parse it. As in the `nextStep` function, a `dataChanged` signal is emitted for the whole table once the pattern has been fully loaded.

Example project @ code.qt.io