Getting off the hook:
Any downloadable material on this site is provided as is. If something bad happens, Andrew Hoyer will in no way take any responsibility (though he would most definitely send his heart felt remorse). © 2010 Andrew Hoyer
Sudoku Solver:
After a bad run of making mistakes while marking up sudokus I thought I would try my hand at creating something to do the marking up for me. But as it turns out, I ended up writing something that would not only mark up the puzzles, but would more often than not entirely solve them.
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What is this?
This is an interactive sudoku solver that works on only the most basic strategies for solving sudokus (which in the vast majority of cases is enough). When ever a cell is entered by a user, the program sets to work figuring out candidates using a simple set of rules.
The core rules of a sudoku are:
- Every row must contain the numbers 1 through 9.
- Every column must also contain the numbers 1 through 9.
- Every "block" (3x3 sub grid) must contain the numbers 1 through 9.
Once this is done, you can begin applying more elaborate rules to eliminate candidate numbers from each cell until only a single number remains.
Which strategies does this thing use?
I like my sudokus to be tricky, but not impossible. This means I don't believe you should ever have to guess a number to solve a sudoku. I also don't like all of the exotic named strategies that only work once in a million puzzles (jellyfish, swordfish, &c.). That in mind, I wrote this program to use only the strategies that I would use to solve a puzzle:
- Row, Column or Block Singles
- Naked Pairs
- Naked Triples
- Hidden Pairs
- Hidden Triples
- Pointing Pairs (or triples)
As I said before, I have absolutely no intention of implementing the silly named strategies.
Hasn't this been done before?
Oh definitely! Everyone and their dog appears to have written one (a quick google search will reveal this). What I feel like other solvers don't provide is an easy to use interface. So even though other solvers may be more powerful, mine is at least easy to use.
Updates:
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Pretty much rewrote the entire application:
- Switched from jquery to mootools.
- Now uses sets instead of strings to represent candidates.
- Consolidated state information.
- Improved efficiency across the board by throttling the amount of looping for most strategies.
- Fixed the horrible bugginess when demoing.
- Added hidden pairs/triples strategies.
- Slight (in looks) interface change.
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