four in a row, coding help anyone?

[mrhappiness]

i'm coding a script which is able to player "four in a row" against a human player

it's working quite well but i'm looking for an efficient way to detect quandaries of my own

the board itself is stored in a two-dimensional array for columns and rows

little example:
( ? = field may be mine, the opponent's or even blank
x = my field,
o = opponent's field
empty field)

? ? x _
? x ? x
x ? ? x
? ? ? x

for example is a quandary since the opponent has to insert his stone into column #4

? ? x o
? x ? x
x ? ? x
? ? ? x

and now i win

? ? ? x
? ? x o
? x ? x
x ? ? x
? ? ? x

but if the board looks like

? ? ? _ x
? ? ? _ ?
? ? x _ ?
? x ? x ?
? ? ? x ?
? ? ? x ?

it's the very same quandary as before simply the diagonale is moved a little bit

how do i detect these possible quandrays most efficient?

tia

[bastien]

I think you have too many possible values...if you are modeling the game on Connect4, then there are only three values not four...

1. field is empty
2. field is opponent occupied
3. field is self occupied

There is no possibility of the game having any other values. maybe that will help

[mrhappiness]

i have only three values

? just means that it doesn't matter whose field it is

? may be one of x o or _ (my filed, opponent's field, blank field)