This popular Japanese number puzzle has just one easy rule: In every Row, every Column and every 3x3 sub-grid, all the numbers from 1 to 9 should appear, but only once in each row, column and sub-grid.
+------+-------+------+
| 0 0 0 | 7 0 0 | 4 0 0 |
| 0 3 0 | 0 9 0 | 0 2 0 |
| 4 0 0 | 0 0 5 | 0 0 0 |
+------+-------+------+
| 0 0 8 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 5 |
| 0 9 0 | 0 3 0 | 0 7 0 |
| 6 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 3 0 0 |
+------+-------+------+
| 0 0 0 | 4 0 0 | 0 0 6 |
| 0 7 0 | 0 2 0 | 0 9 0 |
| 0 0 5 | 0 0 8 | 0 0 0 |
+------+-------+------+

Replace the 0's with the digits required to satisfy the rule.

(In reply to Thanks, Mr. Haley by Penny)

Penny,

I thought about that...my machine is a 2.7GHz P4 with 1GB ram.  I wonder if my program would run on your computer.  If so, how fast?  Can you give it a try and let me know?

Thanks,

Ken

Posted by Ken Haley on 2005-05-15 01:59:43