This is yet another sudoku solver that uses a backtracking algorithm to get the solution.
The sudokus can be passed as files with the flag -f. Example:
$ ./sudoku-solver -f examples/example3.txt
Parsing file using " " as delimiter...
Sudoku to be solved:
╔═══════════════════════╗
║ 0 1 0 | 2 0 4 | 0 8 0 ║
║ 0 0 4 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 ║
║ 9 0 2 | 0 0 8 | 0 0 0 ║
║-------+-------+-------║
║ 0 3 0 | 7 0 0 | 0 4 0 ║
║ 0 0 0 | 0 6 0 | 0 0 0 ║
║ 0 9 0 | 0 2 0 | 6 0 7 ║
║-------+-------+-------║
║ 0 7 0 | 9 0 0 | 2 6 0 ║
║ 3 4 0 | 0 0 0 | 7 0 1 ║
║ 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 9 ║
╚═══════════════════════╝
Solution:
╔═══════════════════════╗
║ 7 1 3 | 2 9 4 | 5 8 6 ║
║ 8 5 4 | 3 7 6 | 1 9 2 ║
║ 9 6 2 | 1 5 8 | 4 7 3 ║
║-------+-------+-------║
║ 2 3 6 | 7 1 5 | 9 4 8 ║
║ 1 8 7 | 4 6 9 | 3 2 5 ║
║ 4 9 5 | 8 2 3 | 6 1 7 ║
║-------+-------+-------║
║ 5 7 8 | 9 3 1 | 2 6 4 ║
║ 3 4 9 | 6 8 2 | 7 5 1 ║
║ 6 2 1 | 5 4 7 | 8 3 9 ║
╚═══════════════════════╝
It took 18.0414ms and 80055 iterations to solve the sudoku
The default delimiter is a space, but this can be easily changed using the flag -d. Example:
./sudoku-solver -f examples/example1.txt -d ","If no flags are passed, the program will read the standard input expecting to find 9 lines with 9 characters each.
$ ./sudoku-solver
Please introduce the sudoku to be solved using " " as separator:
6 . . . . . 1 9 3
. . . . 3 . . . .
. . . . . . . . 6
. . 7 3 . . . . .
. . 6 2 . 1 7 8 .
. 1 . . 6 . . 4 .
2 7 . . . 4 . . .
. . . 9 . . . 2 .
3 . . . 8 . . . 9
Sudoku to be solved:
╔═══════════════════════╗
║ 6 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 1 9 3 ║
║ 0 0 0 | 0 3 0 | 0 0 0 ║
║ 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 6 ║
║-------+-------+-------║
║ 0 0 7 | 3 0 0 | 0 0 0 ║
║ 0 0 6 | 2 0 1 | 7 8 0 ║
║ 0 1 0 | 0 6 0 | 0 4 0 ║
║-------+-------+-------║
║ 2 7 0 | 0 0 4 | 0 0 0 ║
║ 0 0 0 | 9 0 0 | 0 2 0 ║
║ 3 0 0 | 0 8 0 | 0 0 9 ║
╚═══════════════════════╝
Solution:
╔═══════════════════════╗
║ 6 8 2 | 4 7 5 | 1 9 3 ║
║ 1 9 5 | 8 3 6 | 2 7 4 ║
║ 7 4 3 | 1 2 9 | 8 5 6 ║
║-------+-------+-------║
║ 5 2 7 | 3 4 8 | 9 6 1 ║
║ 4 3 6 | 2 9 1 | 7 8 5 ║
║ 9 1 8 | 5 6 7 | 3 4 2 ║
║-------+-------+-------║
║ 2 7 9 | 6 1 4 | 5 3 8 ║
║ 8 6 1 | 9 5 3 | 4 2 7 ║
║ 3 5 4 | 7 8 2 | 6 1 9 ║
╚═══════════════════════╝
It took 78.3289ms and 482463 iterations to solve the sudoku
Note that the blank cells can be represented by any character other than the separator itself.
A set of 3 sample sudokus are pre-loaded in the program and can be selected with the flag -s.
The sample "hardest" is interesting because it's a sudoku especifically designed against backtracking algorithms. While a regular sudoku takes between micro and milliseconds to solve, this one takes some seonds.
A flag -v (verbose) can be used to see how the algorithm is working. By default, the output will be updated 120 times per second, although this can be changed using the flag -r.
Note that in any case, the verbose mode will slow down the solution significantly.
So far the program has been tested only in Linux. It's possible that the output is not shown correctly in Windows systems when verbose mode is enabled.