Original Post
I'm working on a Sudoku puzzle game. For those of you who don't know, this is how it works. I was wondering if anyone knows an efficient algorithm for generating Sudoku puzzles. I have made one, but it just brute-forces a puzzle, and generally takes around 10-15 seconds on a P4. If not, my only thought was to have the program generate more puzzles in the background while the user runs the program, and to store them on the hard drive for the next game. Anyways, if you have any better ideas, please let me know. Edit: Nevermind. I fixed the algorithm, and now it hasn't finished a puzzle yet. It takes a long time [grin], which makes it even more important, I guess. Thanks for your help! Actually, after doing a bit more research, it looks like the most common method involves applying an algorithm developed by David Knuth called "Dancing Links". I have tried looking for any information on it, but this is apparently a pretty obscure thing. Knuth's website has a paper on it, but it is in a format that I can't use (TeX format...). Anyways, if anyone can point me in the direction of more info on this algorithm, I would really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch! [Edited by - silverphyre673 on September 23, 2005 1:41:38 AM]