From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-04-03T14:37:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Logic puzzle generation

Just read the rules for Sudoku.
You can develop your own program.
The rules pretty much give you the things you need to create your  
algorithm.
start with the nice article at wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku

You could do it many ways, but consider multi-dimensional arrays or  
something similar.
These correspond well to a grid. 3 x 3, each containing a 3 x 3 grid.
Make sure that any given row or column follows the rules.

You could get more creative to speed your generation times:
Generate first a list of the sub-grids, there is a finite number of  
them. Label each one.
Perhaps use a label that is descriptive of the contents, very simply:  
123456789, or 235149876
as an example if you read each subgrid from left to right, starting  
in the top right
another method would be to give each combination of 3 digits from 1-9  
some sort of symbolic label.
Then assign 6 of these to each sub grid (3 horizontal, 3 vertical)

Anyway, once you have each sub-grid it becomes very simple to develop  
matching/not matching combinations.

Now the hard part is deciding which numbers to reveal or leave hidden  
and yet keep the puzzle solveable!


On Apr 3, 2007, at 2:45 AM, Todd wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone here could point me in the direction of some
> books/articles/etc. that talk about algorithms for logic puzzle
> generation (i.e. Sudoku).
>
> What I'm looking for is a way to generate puzzles, much like Sudoku,
> that have one and only one solution and also can absolutely be solved
> with logic.
>
> For example, I'm frustrated with Minesweeper because of conditions
> like this in the end game (F = already flagged, ? = unknown, each
> character is in a box)
>
> F F F
> 3 ? 4
> 1 ? F
>
> You have to guess!
>
> Any material on this would be great.
>
> Thanks,
> Todd
>
>