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Spiffing C# Software Swiftly Solves Sisyphean Sudokus

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13 Apr 2009CPOL14 min read 26.9K   647   25   10
Describes the application of constraint propagation to the solving of Sudokus.

Screen shot of Sudoku solver

Introduction

When I told friends I was working on a programme to solve Sudoku puzzles the usual reaction was “What’s the point of that, you killjoy”?  However, my purpose here is not to spoil the fun of solving these puzzles, but to demonstrate the technique of constraint propagation, using Sudoku as a familiar example.

Can there be anyone left on Earth who doesn’t know what a Sudoku is?  Just in case you’ve just returned from a 10 year trip to Mars here’s a quick resume.  Everyone else can jump straight to the next section.

A Sudoku is a deceptively simple puzzle where you have to complete a 9 by 9 grid of numbers.  Each cell of the grid contains a digit between 1 and 9, and each row, column and 3x3 sub-square must contain each number once and only once.  You are given some initial values, usually 17.   There is normally a single unique solution.  So here is an example:

1

 

 

 

 

 

7

 

 

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

 

 

 

7

8

 

 

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

 

 

 

3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

4

1

 

 

 

5

 

 

5

 

 

7

8

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the solution:

1

9

3

6

8

5

7

2

4

2

6

5

7

4

9

3

8

1

4

7

8

3

1

2

5

6

9

7

8

2

9

6

3

4

1

5

5

1

9

4

2

7

8

3

6

3

4

6

8

5

1

9

7

2

8

3

4

1

9

6

2

5

7

9

5

1

2

7

8

6

4

3

6

2

7

5

3

4

1

9

8

The solution to a Sudoku can be found by pure logic – no special knowledge or mathematical skill is required.

Using the Programme

A screen shot of the Sudoku Solver in action is shown above.

The programme displays a single form with a menu and tool bar at the top and a status bar at the bottom. The centre of the form displays two grids of 9x9 cells.  The leftmost one allows you to enter a puzzle using the keyboard, and displays the final solution. The rightmost one shows the state of the cells during the calculation in terms of their possible values – if for example a particular cell could contain the values 2, 5 or 8 then this grid would display 258 for that cell.

The most important tool bar button displays a right pointing arrow Image 2, and this initiates the calculation of the solution.  In order to illustrate the inner workings of the algorithm it is animated – the cell currently under consideration is highlighted, and the display updates as new cell values are calculated.  Each cell is colour coded as follows:

Initial values

Pale Green

Calculated values

Light Cyan

Cells with no possible value

Pink

The red-square button Image 3 can be used to stop the solving process.  There is also a combo-box allowing you to select the speed of the animation.

I find the animation effect strangely hypnotic.  Or perhaps the medication is wearing off; <i >Nurse!

There is also a combo-box which allows you to choose the solution method – but more on that later.

Saving and Loading to Text files

Puzzles can be saved to a text file and re-loaded. A selection of prepared puzzles has been included in the download.  The files are in a simple text format, best illustrated by an example:

; Sudoku file written 09/02/2006 20:00:59.
1.....7..
2........
...3.....
78..6....
...4...3.
.........
.341...5.
.5..786..
.........

Lines beginning with a semi-colon are treated as comments.  The rest of the file consists of 9 lines of 9 characters, one character for each cell. Undefined cells contain a dot character.

The Solver Algorithm

The solver uses two methods to find a solution – trial and error and constraint propagation. The ‘Solution Method’ combo-box allows you to configure what combination of methods to use.

Trial and Error, or Brute Force and Ignorance

The trial and error method is very straightforward – we generate a possible solution, and test it to see if it is correct.  If it is we are finished, otherwise we generate another one and repeat.   So this method is often referred to as ‘Generate and Test’.   For the Sudoku solver we use a recursive version of this, along the following lines:

Function TrialAndError
	Test whether the current grid is valid
	If it is not, return an error code.
	Pick an unallocated cell
	For each possible value for that cell.
		Remember the current state of the grid
		Set the value of the cell to the next possible value
		Call TrialAndError recursively
		If on return we have successfully found a solution 
                    Return ‘success’.
		Otherwise reset the grid to its previous state
	Repeat for next possible value

This process is guaranteed to find a solution eventually, but could take a considerable time. In the very worst case we would have to test every unallocated cell with the values 1 to 9 recursively. So with 64 un-allocated cells we could try 9 to the power 64 possibilities, which is a huge number – about 1063. The universe would end before we finish. Luckily in practice it’s never as bad as this, but even so this brute-force approach can take considerable time (see section on timings below).

Constraint Propagation - Trimming the Possibilities

The problem with the trial-and-error method discussed above is that we end up having to test many configurations of the grid which are invalid. Constraint propagation is a technique for reducing the possible values we have to test, so speeding up the search for a solution. It is a term from the field of Constraint Programming – an advanced technique for solving large, complex problems. In Constraint Programming a <i >constraint is simply a relationship between two or more variables that limit their values in some way.  Each <i >variable belongs to a <i >domain – its set of possible values.  So in the case of Sudoku the variables are the cells of the grid, the domain of the variables is the integers from 1 to 9, and the constraints are the rules that the cells of a row, column or sub-square must be unique.

To propagate the constraint means to use it to reduce the possible values of a variable. So for example, here is the grid of possibilities at the start of solving the puzzle shown above:

1

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

7

123456789

123456789

2

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

3

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

7

8

123456789

123456789

6

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

4

123456789

123456789

123456789

3

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

3

4

1

123456789

123456789

123456789

5

123456789

123456789

5

123456789

123456789

7

8

6

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

Consider the first cell at (0,0) with the value 1. The uniqueness rules mean that no other cell in the same row, column or sub-square can have the same value, so we can remove the value 1 from the possibilities for those squares.  Here’s the appearance of the grid after we have done this:

1

23456789

23456789

23456789

23456789

23456789

7

23456789

23456789

2

23456789

23456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

23456789

23456789

23456789

3

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

7

8

123456789

123456789

6

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

23456789

123456789

123456789

4

123456789

123456789

123456789

3

123456789

23456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

23456789

3

4

1

123456789

123456789

123456789

5

123456789

23456789

5

123456789

123456789

7

8

6

123456789

123456789

23456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

We can repeat this process for each cell in the grid with a defined (single) value. Eventually we remove so many possible values that some new cells also contain a single value. This applies to cell (7,0) in this grid – it has reduced to the value 9:

1

469

35689

25689

24589

24569

7

24689

2345689

2

4679

356789

56789

14589

145679

134589

14689

1345689

45689

4679

56789

3

124589

1245679

124589

124689

1245689

7

8

12359

259

6

12359

12459

1249

12459

569

1269

12569

4

12589

12579

12589

3

1256789

34569

12469

123569

25789

123589

123579

124589

1246789

12456789

689

3

4

1

29

269

289

5

2789

9

5

129

29

7

8

6

1249

12349

689

12679

126789

2569

23459

234569

123489

124789

1234789

We can then continue the process and propagate the values of those cells too.

1

469

35689

25689

24589

24569

7

24689

2345689

2

4679

356789

56789

14589

145679

134589

14689

1345689

4568

4679

56789

3

124589

1245679

124589

124689

1245689

7

8

12359

259

6

12359

12459

1249

12459

56

1269

12569

4

12589

12579

12589

3

1256789

3456

12469

123569

25789

123589

123579

124589

1246789

12456789

68

3

4

1

29

269

289

5

2789

9

5

12

2

7

8

6

124

1234

68

1267

12678

2569

23459

234569

123489

124789

1234789

Here is the example on completion of this propagation process:

1

69

35689

68

2458

2459

7

2689

245689

2

679

35689

678

1458

14579

134589

689

145689

4

679

5689

3

1258

12579

1589

2689

125689

7

8

2

9

6

35

45

1

45

5

169

69

4

128

127

89

3

2689

3

1469

69

78

1258

1257

4589

26789

245689

8

3

4

1

9  

6

2

5

7

9

5

1

2

7

8

6

4

3

6

2

7

5

34

34

189

89

189

There is an additional way of applying the uniqueness constraints which is called the ‘unique value’ rule. Consider the first row of the possible values:

1

69

35689

68

2458

2459

7

2689

245689

The third cell along is the only one to contain the value 3.  This means that the cell must be the only cell that can have the value 3 (otherwise it would appear in the possibilities of some other cell).  So if we detect this situation, either for a row, column or sub-square, we can then force the cell to have that value, and again continue the propagation. By applying this method we can further reduce the example grid to the following possibilities:

1

9

3

6

458

25

7

28

458

2

6

58

7

1458

159

3

89

14589

4

7

58

3

158

1259

1589

2689

15689

7

8

2

9

6

3

45

1

45

5

1

69

4

2

7

89

3

689

3

4

69

8

15

15

59

7

2

8

3

4

1

9

6

2

5

7

9

5

1

2

7

8

6

4

3

6

2

7

5

3

4

189

89

189

It is possible to solve some Sudokus purely by this straightforward constraint propagation.  The samples in the download marked ‘easiest’ can be solved this way.

Even if we don’t reach a solution by constraint propagation, the key thing is that we have significantly reduced the possible values of the cells.  Some of the cells have just two possible values, so if we now chose those cells as the starting point for the trail and error method we only have to generate and test two possibilities.

Complete Algorithm

Combining the constraint propagation into the trial and error method yields an algorithm like this:

Function TrialAndError
	Test whether the current grid is valid
	If it is not, return an error code.
	Propagate Constraints
	Pick an unallocated cell with the fewest possible values
	For each possible value for that cell.
		Remember the current state of the grid
		Set the value of the cell to the next possible value
		Call TrialAndError recursively
		If on return we have successfully found a solution 
                    Return ‘success’.
		Otherwise reset the grid to its previous state
	Repeat for next possible value

The Code

The code defines two main classes:

SudokuSolver This defines the state of the puzzle grid, and the methods for solving it.

SudokuSolverMainForm This displays the state of the grid, and defines the menu items and toolbar buttons for driving the application.

In other words the code is divided into a classic model/view dichotomy. Synchronisation between the view and the model is achieved using events.  The <i >SudokuSolver class defines two events:

<i >Focused This event is raised when the solver choses a cell for propagation or trial-and-error.

<i >Updated This event is raised when the solver has finished updating the values of cells following a propagation or trail-and-error iteration.

The main form subscribes to these two events and updates the appearance of the two display grids when they occur.

To represent the state of each cell of the grid the code also defines the SudokuCell class. It stores the possible values of the cell using SetOfInts16, a structure from the ‘sets’ library described in my previous article.  This is essentially a bit-array, using one bit to represent the presence of each integer from the range 0-15.

The key method of the SudokuSolver class is not surprisingly called Solve:

C#
public bool Solve()
{
    Start();    // clear flags and counters
    if (!Check())
        return false;
    return SolveInternal();
}

This does some housekeeping, then calls an internal method that does the real work:

C#
private bool SolveInternal()
{
    UpdateCounts();
    if (!NoPropagation)
        Propagate();
    if (undefinedCells > 0 && emptyCells == 0 && !stopFlag)
        TrialAndError();
    return (undefinedCells == 0);
}

The <i >UpdateCounts method calculates how many cells are still undefined or are empty (have no solution). These counts are used to terminate the solver when either a solution is found or there are no possible solutions. As you can see from the above, the solver returns true if there are no undefined cells left – i.e. we have found a solution.

The Propagate method keeps propagating the value of known cells until we either solve the puzzle, detect a cell with no possible values, or cannot find any more cells to propagate.

Finally the TrailAndError method implements the ‘generate and test’ algorithm to search for a solution:

C#
private bool TrialAndError()
{
    if (NoTrialAndError)
        return false;
    int row=0;
    int col=0;
    // save the state:
    SudokuCell[,] saved_cells = new SudokuCell[9, 9];
    SaveCells(saved_cells);
    if (FindBestTrialCandidate(ref row, ref col))
    {
        // try each possible value of the cell:
        SudokuCell x = cells[row, col];
        foreach (int i in x)
        {
            trialCount++;
            OnFocus(row, col);
            cells[row, col].Value = i;
            OnUpdate();
            bool bValid = true; // is the grid still valid?
            if (NoPropagation)
                bValid = Check(row, col, i);
            if (bValid)
            {
                // re-enter the solver:
                if (SolveInternal())
                    return true;
                // solution not found; restore the state:
                RestoreCells(saved_cells);
            }
            backtrackCount++;
            if (stopFlag)
                return false;
        }
    }
    return false;   // couldn't find a solution
}

The method FindBestTrailCandidate  searches the grid for the best candidate for trial-and-error. We try to find the cell with the fewest possible values. If we find a cell with just two possible values we can use  that one without further search.

For more information look at the supplied source – I hope it is sufficiently self-explanatory.

Timing Comparison

In order to back up my assertion as to the superiority of constraint propagation I gathered some timing statistics for various sample puzzles:

Sudoku Puzzle

Trail and error only

Trail and error plus propagation

Speed Increase factor

Sudoku 00 empty

0.137 secs

0.333 secs

0.374

Sudoku 01 easiest

0.0262 secs

0.0092 secs

2.856

Sudoku 03 diabolical

0.936

0.0554

16.887

Sudoku 05 easy

10 hr 21 m 35 s

0.017 secs

2486769.9

Sudoku 98 Easter Monster

66.675 secs

0.848 secs

76.993

Sudoku 99 Golden Nugget

65.3 secs

2.051044

31.837

Puzzle 00 is the empty grid. For this puzzle the constraint propagation method is slower than the trial and error method, as there are no initial constraints. However, for all the true puzzles the constrain propagation method beats the pure trial and error method by a significant factor.  The extreme example of this is the puzzle introduced in the first section – number 5.  To solve this by trial and error takes over 10 hours on my laptop!  You can see why this might be if you look at the solution. The first unallocated cell is the second square on the top row, and in the solution this has the value 9. So in order to reach this the trial and error method must run through every possible combination until it reaches a 9 in this cell.  This takes over <b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>one billion iterations.

Real World Applications of Constraint Programming

I’ve tried to show how Constraint Programming can be applied to a familiar example, but there are many real-world applications in which it can be used.  For example there are working systems in the following areas:

  • Picture recognition.
  • Creating schedules for airlines, bus and train companies.
  • Placing transmitters for Cellular radio.
  • DNA sequencing.
  • Electronic circuit design.

You can find lots more information on the web – there are some links at the end of the article.

Summary

I know this is at least the 24th Sudoku article on CodeProject. I hope this one is sufficiently different that you do not feel you have wasted your time reading it. Thank you.

Further <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Reading

Link

Description

http://ktiml.mff.cuni.cz/~bartak/constraints/index.html

A nice web-site describing constraint programming techniques and applications

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmics_of_sudoku

The Wikipedia article on Sudoku solving algorithms.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/OOSudoku2.aspx

Another Codeproject article describing a similar Sudoku solver.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/collections/SetCollectionsForCSharp.aspx

My previous article on a set collections library.

Postscript

Sisyphus was the legendary Greek king condemned by the gods to push a boulder uphill for all eternity. Whenever he reached to hilltop the bolder rolled back down to the bottom.  Hence a Sisyphean task is both arduous and futile.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under <a href="http: www.codeproject.com="" info="" cpol10.aspx"="">The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

History

  • Initial version 15 February 2009

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior) Imagine Communications
United Kingdom United Kingdom
I have been working in IT since 1975, in various roles from junior programmer to system architect, and with many different languages and platforms. I have written shedloads of code.

I now live in Bedfordshire, England. As well as working full time I am the primary carer for my wife who has MS. I am learning to play the piano. I have three grown up children and a cat.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
Kanasz Robert6-Nov-12 2:30
professionalKanasz Robert6-Nov-12 2:30 
GeneralTemporary key! Pin
Cynthia_mama19-Jun-10 21:16
Cynthia_mama19-Jun-10 21:16 
QuestionRe: Temporary key! Pin
Keith Barrett21-Jun-10 9:08
Keith Barrett21-Jun-10 9:08 
GeneralGreat Intro to Constraint Programming! Pin
sam.hill13-Apr-09 15:22
sam.hill13-Apr-09 15:22 
AnswerRe: Great Intro to Constraint Programming! Pin
Keith Barrett14-Apr-09 8:02
Keith Barrett14-Apr-09 8:02 
GeneralSample Application Pin
#realJSOP17-Feb-09 4:49
mve#realJSOP17-Feb-09 4:49 
GeneralRe: Sample Application Pin
Keith Barrett17-Feb-09 10:32
Keith Barrett17-Feb-09 10:32 
GeneralC# is not spiffing Pin
PIEBALDconsult16-Feb-09 16:22
mvePIEBALDconsult16-Feb-09 16:22 
AnswerRe: C# is not spiffing Pin
Keith Barrett17-Feb-09 10:35
Keith Barrett17-Feb-09 10:35 
GeneralRe: C# is not spiffing Pin
sam.hill13-Apr-09 15:20
sam.hill13-Apr-09 15:20 

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