Sudoku Puzzle Solver?

I've been working on this for a while now, and I've got it to the point where it almost works, but not quite. It's really frustrating and I can't figure out where my logic is going wrong.

http://uranther.pastebin.com/584302 <-- the code

Here's sudoku.txt:

Code:

---

98___63__
___3_752_
_23_5_4_9
162__49_5
8__6_5__3
5_42__671
3_1_6_89_
_498_3___
__89___32

---

Line 94 is just to check the progress of the solve() function for debugging purposes. I think I have all the structure in place but somewhere my logic has gone wrong, hopefully. Can someone help me with this program? I'd greatly appreciate it.

First off, beside checking incolumn and inrow, you need to check if the number is in the 3x3 sub-grid it belongs.

We just had a discussion on sudoku techniques here along with some code

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darryl

First off, beside checking incolumn and inrow, you need to check if the number is in the 3x3 sub-grid it belongs.

We just had a discussion on sudoku techniques here along with some code

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I assumed ultimately that that wouldn't be needed because that's more of a sanity check, but I will look through this thread, thanks :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Apocalypse

I assumed ultimately that that wouldn't be needed because that's more of a sanity check, but I will look through this thread, thanks :D

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It's not a sanity check at all... it's a rule.

Code:

---

1 2 3 | 4 5 6 | 7 8 9
2 3 4 | 5 6 7 | 8 9 1
3 4 5 | 6 7 8 | 9 1 2
---------------------
4 5 6 | 7 8 9 | 1 2 3
5 6 7 | 8 9 1 | 2 3 4
6 7 8 | 9 1 2 | 3 4 5
---------------------
7 8 9 | 1 2 3 | 4 5 6
8 9 1 | 2 3 4 | 5 6 7
9 1 2 | 3 4 5 | 6 7 8

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By your standards, this is a legal soduku solution. But it's not.

Anyway, here is an old post on a soduku solver, but it may be below you. It speaks in consideration of how to handle your 3x3 boxes.

If you're looking to make a soduku solver, you should consider writing the already known logic algorithms to your program. There a many of them already discovered. You can find most of them here and another great site here.

also, it looks as if the logic never changes in the solve function.

Here's my improved program -- it actually solves some sudoku puzzles. It doesn't, however, solve harder puzzles like some medium difficulty, and all hard and very hard puzzles I've tried. I don't see why it would solve an easy puzzle and not a hard one?

http://uranther.pastebin.com/596765

Solves:

Code:

---


98___63__
___3_752_
_23_5_4_9
162__49_5
8__6_5__3
5_42__671
3_1_6_89_
_498_3___

---

Doesn't solve:

Code:

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_98__3__7
__18_7_3_
4___5____
9____8_7_
__6___5__
_4_2____6
____3___2
_8_4_97__
5__7__36_

---

because easy puzzle "moves" are forced and therefore don't have "dead-ends". Harder puzzles require you to "guess" some positions, but later you may find those guesses where wrong so you need to reverse all numbers entered after the guess and then guess a different number.

if you want to know how algoritms work on how to solve/generate i consider you to go look on http://www.setbb.com/phpbb/