Tic tac toe challange, my code gets stuck in while loop

Computer Science
1

My code works fine up until my while loop catches a player picking a spot already chosen. when this happens, the game gets stuck in the while loop no matter what the player chooses. the code creates a vector to store each space. when a player chooses a spot (1-9) the value of that assigned value is changed to the players mark X or O. a current game board and the instruction board, to remind players what spot is what number, is printed each turn. please help.
ttt.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include "ttt_func.hpp"
#include <vector>

int main() {
  std::vector<char> answer = {' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '};
  int turns = 1;
  int player_choice;
  char player1 = 'X';
  char player2 = 'O';
  while (turns <= 9) {
    if (turns % 2 == 0) {
      std::cout << "Player 2 pick a box (1-9)\n\n";
      std::cout << " 1 | 2 | 3 \n";
      std::cout << "___|___|___\n";
      std::cout << " 4 | 5 | 6 \n";
      std::cout << "___|___|___\n";
      std::cout << " 7 | 8 | 9 \n";
      std::cout << "   |   |   \n";
      std::cin >> player_choice;
      while (answer[player_choice - 1] == 'X' || answer[player_choice - 1] == 'O') {
        pick_again(answer, player_choice);
        for(int i = 0; i < answer.size(); i++){
          std::cout << answer[i] << " ";
        }
        std::cout << "\n\n";
      }
      answer[player_choice - 1] = player2;
      display_board(answer);
    } else {
      std::cout << "Player 1 pick a box (1-9)\n\n";
      std::cout << " 1 | 2 | 3 \n";
      std::cout << "___|___|___\n";
      std::cout << " 4 | 5 | 6 \n";
      std::cout << "___|___|___\n";
      std::cout << " 7 | 8 | 9 \n";
      std::cout << "   |   |   \n";
      std::cin >> player_choice;
      while (answer[player_choice - 1] == 'X' || answer[player_choice - 1] == 'O') {
        for(int i = 0; i < answer.size(); i++){
          std::cout << answer[i] << " ";
          }
          pick_again(answer, player_choice);
        }
      }
      
      answer[player_choice - 1] = player1;
      display_board(answer);
    }
    turns ++;
  }
}

ttt_func.cpp

#include <vector>
#include <iostream>

void display_board(std::vector<char> answer) {
  std::cout << " " << answer[0] << " | " << answer[1] << " | " << answer[2] << " \n";
  std::cout << "___|___|___\n";
  std::cout << " " << answer[3] << " | " << answer[4] << " | " << answer[5] << " \n";
  std::cout << "___|___|___\n";
  std::cout << " " << answer[6] << " | " << answer[7] << " | " << answer[8] << " \n";
  std::cout << "   |   |   \n";
}

void pick_again(std::vector<char> answer, int player_choice) {
  std::cout << "Box already chosen, pick again\n";
  display_board(answer);
  std::cout << "\n 1 | 2 | 3 \n";
  std::cout << "___|___|___\n";
  std::cout << " 4 | 5 | 6 \n";
  std::cout << "___|___|___\n";
  std::cout << " 7 | 8 | 9 \n";
  std::cout << "   |   |   \n";
  std::cin >> player_choice;
}

ttt_func.hpp

type or paste code here

#include <vector>
void display_board(std::vector<char> answer);
void pick_again(std::vector<char> answer, int player_choice);
2

Maybe you could use popback to remove the option of picking the same thing again?

3

i cant, i need the complete vector for the funtion display board.

4

nevermind i figured it out. i needed to return the function pick_again() with the value of player_choice and then update the variable as player_choice = pick_again().

5

i just started the section on references and pointers and realized i could have used a reference to to player_choice as well. so the parameter of pick_again () function could have been &new_player_choice which would change player_choice outside of the function. i went ahead and updated the code and it worked. i like this way better. im sure im just talking to myself but im posting in case anyone else has similar issues.