Flood fill

Flood fill, also called seed fill, is an algorithm that determines the area connected to a given node in a multi-dimensional array. It is used in the 'bucket' fill tool of paint programs to fill connected, similarly-colored areas with a different color, and in games such as Go and Minesweeper for determining which pieces are cleared. Flood fill, also called seed fill, is an algorithm that determines the area connected to a given node in a multi-dimensional array. It is used in the 'bucket' fill tool of paint programs to fill connected, similarly-colored areas with a different color, and in games such as Go and Minesweeper for determining which pieces are cleared. The flood-fill algorithm takes three parameters: a start node, a target color, and a replacement color. The algorithm looks for all nodes in the array that are connected to the start node by a path of the target color and changes them to the replacement color. There are many ways in which the flood-fill algorithm can be structured, but they all make use of a queue or stack data structure, explicitly or implicitly.