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If the applet does not show up just above this text, it's probably because your
favorite browser (Firefox, IE...) no longer supports java applets.
For some time still you might try an older version.
If you have installed JDK you may also use AppletViewer with the URL of this page.
Oracle has planned the definitive end of Java Applets, inclusive AppletViewer, in Java 9.




NEW:
A custom OCR implementation lets you import (by drag and drop or copy-paste)
the image (JPG, PNG or GIF) representing a Sudoku puzzle or its screen capture.
See explications here

The applet above is meant to offer help adapted to what the player wants.
The assistance may consist in
  • playing without pencil
  • simple backtracking when needed
  • colored hints for the techniques to use
  • fast simplification of the grid by simple clicks
  • estimation of the complexity of the puzzle by exploring the techniques required to solve it

  How to use this program

The easiest is to play the given puzzle. It's randomly selected in a list of 48826 minimal puzzles compiled by Gordon Royle.

The menu Load lets you play an other of Royle's puzzle or one of 1465 diabolic puzzles from magictour, more of this further on.

You can also begin by paste a text version or a screen capture of some sudoku puzzle of your choice into the applet (please notice that to do so you must enable clipboard interaction). More laboriously, you can enter the values by hand.

  Edite by hand

Check that "Edite a new puzzle" is enabled. Fill in the numbers of your grid (verify that the last number is correctly entered). To enter a number, click the cell, hit the number on your keyboard, then click another cell or use the arrows. To erase a number, double-click the cell, select what you want to erase, and hit "del".

  Play

When your grid is ready, enable "Play the puzzle". You would probably also select "candidates".

You can then play (without help from the program) by selecting a cell and then edit it's new content in the small editor called  "Edite sélected cell".

You can also see the suggestions of the program if you enable the corresponding "Techniques".

A right clic in a cell will pop up a menu which lets you simplify the puzzle by the technique attatched to this cell, and - for the more complex techniques - enhance the cells and the candidates which are implied.



The buttons "Simplify" offer a means to browse rapidly towards the solution. Each set of techniques has it's own color and button.

If it's necessary you can backtrack step by step with "undo", and also "mark" a step to "return" there later (usefull in case of trial and error, but there's only one mark available).

If you vant to estimate if a given grid is difficult or not, begin by enabeling two or three of the easiest techniques, then use the corresponding buttons to simplify the grid. If at some moment the program doesn't give a hint for the next step, enable one other technique. If still no suggestion appears, disable that one and try another. You may find (very difficult) grids that this program can't help you to solve completely by hints.

Import / export

Import of an image and OCR (Import / export uses the cliboard: you must enable clipboard access in order to use it).

Lots of sites offer images of sudoku puzzles ready to copy or print (format JPG, GIF or PNG). You can then import the image into the program by simply drag the image and drop it on the applet. When the proposed puzzle is not of such a format, you can import it by first doing a screen capture and then import the capture.

To do so, use the screen capture utility of Vista or Windows 7 or a screen capture program like PrtScr. First, capture the image of the puzzle by selecting the corresponding rectangle of the screen, including the boarding line of the sudoku grid; next copy the capture to the clipboard, and then select "Import/export > paste" in the menu of my program.

This homemade optical character recognition is not perfect, but should function for most grids having a good contrast and a sharp font.

Import of a puzzle in text format (Import / export uses the cliboard: you must enable clipboard access in order to use it).

The puzzle must conform to one of the simple following text formats:
9 lines of 9 characters as in the following example (the periods are transformed into blanc cells by the program)

....81.9.
.43......
...9..26.
......6..
...2..7..
28..69...
472......
....5.3..
3.6.24...

More generally the program accept any text by ignoring any character other than .0123456789 where the period "." and the digit"0" are interpreted as empty cells.

3 2 9 | 4 1 . | 7 . .
. . . | . . . | 4 . .
. . 5 | . 2 . | . . .
---------------------
5 . . | . . . | 3 . 6
. 6 . | 7 . 3 | . 9 .
8 . 7 | . . . | . . 2
---------------------
. . . | . 4 . | 8 . .
. . 6 | . . . | . . .
. . 3 | . 7 2 | 9 5 1

and
800009406060240013000600005026300008380000050400807360908003000610082030203900001

will therefore be accepted (try to copy-paste them into the applet).
A tabulation-separated position-based text format is also accepted (the tabulations give the positions, a digit may or not be present at any position).

It's also possible to import and export puzzles with the candidates as recommended on the site Sudopedia.

Some sites offer puzzles conformant to one of these formats. For example magictour from which I recommend this list of 1465 hard puzzles. Some of these (especially at the beginning) demand the Denied Promotion technique. You will find easier puzzles at paulspages (select a puzzle to play then use Import/Export button) or at sudocue. An example of the tabulation-separated copyable puzzle format is used by lemo: clic on one of the three 3x3 puzzle types, then select the whole puzzle grid and copy-paste it into my applet. The dayly press is a source for a variety of sudoku puzzles, but if no internet site offers you a compyable version you will have to enter it by hand.

When you have entered a grid by hand, remeber to export it and paste it into a word editor (then you can save it to your harddisk). In this way you can easily copy-paste it back into the applet later on. Be aware that if you leave the Sudoku page, your grid will be empty when you turn back. Here copy-paste before leaving may be a rescue.

Enable clipboard import / export

If you experience problems when copy-pasting to the applet it's probably because your Java configuration will not let you do so.

To enable applet copy-pasting do the following:

Open a simple text editor like EditPad Lite. Search for the file .java.policy (inclusive the beginning period, it's part of the name) in your home directory (for example with Windows XP, if your identity is "myself" your home directory will probably be "C:\Documents and Settings\myself"), open it and add the three following lines at the end of the file:

grant codeBase "http://areu.free.fr/sudoku/*" {
  permission java.awt.AWTPermission "accessClipboard";
};

If the file does not exist, create it, and if your favorite editor does not let you create a file whose name begins with a perod, use EditPad lite!

An alternative is to use the policytool of your Java installation: start > execute policytool.exe.

Vocabulary and references

Sudoku is a puzzle, a "brain game". The goal is to complete a grid of 9x9 cells in such a manner that each line, each column and each 3x3 box conains each of the numbers 1 to 9.

The site Sudoku of the day give excellente explications on the techniques used to solve a Sudoku puzzle. You will also find examples of step by step solutions.

If you want a very in-depth documentation, take a look at Sudopedia.

Here's a summary of the techniques implemented
  • singles = single candidate
  • blocked = candidate line
  • paires = naked pairs
  • triplets = naked triples
  • n-tuples = naked groups of n candidates
  • n-fishes = X-wing, Swordfish, Jellyfish
  • wings = XY-Wing, XYZ-Wing
  • chains = XY-chains and Nice loops. Please note that in some cases the search for nice loops can take a rather long time!
  • the prefix h. means "hidden" : single position, multi-line, hidden pairs, hidden triples...
  • The last technique, Denied Promotion, is a technique that you can't expect to use by hand except in its simplest forms. I used this text of Bob Hanson as basis.

    Here's the idea: you choose a candidate in a cell and promote it. This promotion will imply a simplification of the puzzle, and some other candidates in other cells will become single candidates or hidden singles in their line (or column or box). The techniques "single" and "hidden single" will let us promote these candidates too. We thus have a chain reaction which can end in three possible ways

    - an error appeares in the puzzle. The initial candidate can not be promoted. Then we can simply take it away from the cell!
    - no new promotion is possible. No conclusion is then possible, we can not eliminate the candidate
    - we find the solution of the puzzle.

    This last possibility make some people pretend that this sort of technique is not a true "technique" but just "trial end error". That's why my algorithm comes with two sorts of "blindness"

    - if the puzzle is resolved, the algorithm will only see that no new promotion is possible ; this case is thus treated just like the second type of end of the chain reaction
    - the number of iterations (chain reactions) is limited. The default value is 2 (possible values go from 1 to 20). It's quite realistic to prtend that for 1 and 2 this technique may be done by hand, it's then a "normal" technique.

    The technique may be generalized, indeed after the promotion of the initial candidate one may use other techniques than "single" ou "hidden single" to simplify the puzzle and try to reveal an error. Three "forces" are at your disposal in the menu:

    - basic, the iterations only use "single" and "hidden single"
    - advanced, we add "blocked" and the family of "pairs", "triplets", "n-tuples"
    - complete, all techniques but "Denied Promotion" are used.

    When activated, the algorithm will search for the first denied promotion found in each cell. It may of course exist others in the cell, but these will not be searched for this time. You should notice that this technique may demand huge amount of time to analyse a puzzle, indeed, for each cell it will spend the same time as normaly for a whole puzzle multiplied by the number of iterations needed and the number of candidates examined in the cell! It's a good idea to keep an eye on the Java Monitor in order to see that things are working and not to confuse waiting time with a software crash!

Site updated 08 May, 2017    Remarks and questions? areusite at free dot fr