Subj : Help finishing my sudoku solver
To   : comp.programming
From : Allan Bruce
Date : Mon Jul 18 2005 01:20 pm

I have made a small program to solve sudoku puzzles.  It attempts to solve 
the puzzle algorithmically which seems to work for most puzzles however I 
have found a few that it cannot solve.  To get around this, I have also 
added a brute-force method to try and solve the problem but it doesnt quite 
seem to work, it is very close though.  The method works by trying the first 
non-set cell and setting it to its lowest value then recursing to the next 
cell.  If a cell that is encountered that cant be set is found then the 
recursion backtracks.

I have put my code on my website:
http://allanbruce.redirectme.net/~allan/SudokuSolver.zip

It has the source, and two boards.  testboard2.txt works fine as it doesnt 
need the brute-force attack, however testboard.txt requires the brute-force 
method.  I have given the solution to testboard too, and I have a line in 
the source (SudokuBoard.java#185) which sees when one particular cell is set 
to the value it should be however this never gets attempted.  Can anybody 
tell me where I am going wrong?  I am so close.

Thanks,
Allan

.