Sudoku Solver

If you found this page you probably already know how intensly addictive Sudoku is. Here in the UK it was popularised by its publication in The Times newspaper. It has taken the world by storm and is now heralded as the languageless crossword puzzle.

This solver was written purely in PHP and uses the three basic methods to solve each puzzle. On occasion the solver cannot simply rely soley on these rules, and so resorts to a little 'brute-force' to solve the puzzle. Easy puzzles can be solved in less that a 10th of a second, where as more fiendish puzzles can take up to 3 seconds. This solver was written purley as a concept to see if it were possible to solve efficiently. Later versions of this program may include various optimisations using some of the more advanced solution methods to solve the problems, in the meantime it will rely on partial brute-force.

Version 1.0 - Initial Release approved

Version 2.0 - Code tidied up and a special "Create a new Sudoku Problem" function added

I've also now written the same algorithm in CSharp. It has a few additions and optimisations, but largly works on the same basis. You can download a copy here: Download Zip.