D-pad LED display

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi,
I tried typing out a very long and detailed post, but for some reason it didn't post and I lost the whole thing.
My friend and I are in a class for High School where we get to experiment and learn with Arduinos (Mechatronics) and we wanted to build something very similar to NES Controller Interface for Etch A Sketch - Make: but before we got the motors we wanted to make a "diagnostic display" where it will illuminate an LED based off of which button is pressed. It's a fairly simple concept, but having to write digitalWrite() 72 times seemed a bit excessive and unnecessary. I figured there must be a way to simplify the code, and I thought that Arrays would be the way to go. Creating an array that is modified from within the cases and at the end of the loop, a way to digitalWrite( maxval, HIGH) and digitalWrite(minval, LOW) or something along those lines. Am I on the right track? Are there other methods for shortening up my code? I'm not looking for Shift Registers, I want the solution to come from the code only if possible. I also included a poorly done Fritzing diagram to show what the project will kind of look like, and to help visualize the goal.

int left = 2;
int up = 3; 
int right = 4;
int down = 5;
int pinSetupArray [9]={6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13};
int seq = 0;
int switchLeft;
int switchUp;
int switchRight;
int switchDown;
void setup(){
  for (seq = 0; seq <9; seq ++){
    pinMode(pinSetupArray[seq],OUTPUT);
  }
  //sets all pins listed in pinSetupArray to OUTPUT
  pinMode(left, INPUT);
  pinMode(up, INPUT);
  pinMode(right, INPUT);
  pinMode(down, INPUT);
}

void loop(){
  switchLeft = digitalRead(left);
  switchUp = digitalRead(up);
  switchRight = digitalRead(right);
  switchDown = digitalRead(down);
  
  if (switchLeft == 1){
    digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(7, LOW);
    digitalWrite(8, LOW);
    digitalWrite(9, LOW);
    digitalWrite(10, LOW);
    digitalWrite(11, LOW);
    digitalWrite(12, LOW);
    digitalWrite(13, LOW);
  }
  else if(switchLeft ==1 && switchUp ==1);{
    digitalWrite(6, LOW);
    digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(8, LOW);
    digitalWrite(9, LOW);
    digitalWrite(10, LOW);
    digitalWrite(11, LOW);
    digitalWrite(12, LOW);
    digitalWrite(13, LOW);
  }
  else if(switchUp == 1);{
    digitalWrite(6, LOW);
    digitalWrite(7, LOW);
    digitalWrite(8, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(9, LOW);
    digitalWrite(10, LOW);
    digitalWrite(11, LOW);
    digitalWrite(12, LOW);
    digitalWrite(13, LOW);
  }
// ... and so on for all the eight possible combinations
 else {
   digitalWrite(6, LOW);
    digitalWrite(7, LOW);
    digitalWrite(8, LOW);
    digitalWrite(9, LOW);
    digitalWrite(10, LOW);
    digitalWrite(11, LOW);
    digitalWrite(12, LOW);
    digitalWrite(13, LOW);
 }
}

dpad_display.png
dpad_display.png3843×1536 627 KB

2

Yes arrays are the way to go.
Read this
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Tutorial/Arrays.html

3

What Grumpy_Mike said.
Set up 8 more arrays with the settings for you pins:

int x;
int pinValueArray1 [8] {1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0};  //One HIGH followed by 7 LOWs
int pinValueArray2 [8] {etc....
.
.
.
if (switchLeft == 1){
   for (x =0, x<8, x++){
      digitalWrite((x+6), pinValueArray1[x]);   
   }
}
etc.

Even better would be to set up a 2 dimensional (8*8 ) array for all your pin settings.