How do I combine match 3 and arrays?

I'm looking to create a match 3 game.

While I've created one using tut, I found that's it's clunky and slow, once you get past a certain speed. While speed isn't too much of an issue given that the game will be level based, it is still a problem, especially with that many events, and things to be called.

So I went hunting and through various bits of the internet and found the idea of using arrays to create a match 3 game. Several posts were here on the forums, although from so long ago, I didn't want to necro them looking for advice. Which led me to wonderful tut. Except... this one was abandoned after that first post.

I refuse to give up though on my idea, so what I need to ask you wonderful people is:

1. Can I combine the instructions from the first test (working solely by functions) into the concept of an array?

2. Is there anything I can read to further explain what an array is and /how/ it can be applied, not merely theoretical as the manual is?

3. If array's aren't possible, is there an option to replace checking 'every tick' for matches? I tried out several others, but they.. weren't possible.

Many thanks.

An array is a great way to hold the data and information to keep track of where objects are.

I would would use a number to represent each tile.

Let's say I have tile 1, 2, and 3

The array holds the game field and values are 1-3

Think of an array like a grid. Or game of battleship.

for this problem I would use nested for loops to navigate the array.

For(int I is less than array sizeY)

For(Int Y is less than array sizeX)

check if there is a match across ArrayX

If not, check for a match on arrayY

If you want to get into performance optimizations. Do a full check every once in a while. Otherwise only check where there are changes in the array. No need to check the whole thing all the time. Once should be good.

Alright, I'll dig into this and see what I can make sense of.

Thank you for the help ^^.