The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[gsf]

two more
improvements seem to be < 1 per day now

Code: Select all

#VI,5,23,SM,900000005010000090020106040005904300700050002060000010140000067000302000000000000,gsf,2006-06-06

9 . .  . . .  . . 5
. 1 .  . . .  . 9 .
. 2 .  1 . 6  . 4 .

. . 5  9 . 4  3 . .
7 . .  . 5 .  . . 2
. 6 .  . . .  . 1 .

1 4 .  . . .  . 6 7
. . .  3 . 2  . . .
. . .  . . .  . . .

#I,6,24,SM,007000400000104000302000905060080030000709000070050090901000304000506000003000700,gsf,2006-06-08

. . 7  . . .  4 . .
. . .  1 . 4  . . .
3 . 2  . . .  9 . 5

. 6 .  . 8 .  . 3 .
. . .  7 . 9  . . .
. 7 .  . 5 .  . 9 .

9 . 1  . . .  3 . 4
. . .  5 . 6  . . .
. . 3  . . .  7 . .


[gsf]

via experimentation
use "..." to quote spaces for windows cmd.exe and shortcuts
in addition, use %% for a literal % in windows shortcuts

[Ocean]

two more
improvements seem to be < 1 per day now

If everybody could report one improvement per day, we would bring the numbers down to their minimums quite soon.
Two new improvements noted!


Finally - first absolute minimal four-stepper:

Code: Select all

#Type II. 4 steps, 24 clues, Minimal.
 *-----------*
 |...|..1|.2.|
 |2.1|..3|...|
 |..4|..5|67.|
 |---+---+---|
 |683|...|...|
 |...|...|...|
 |...|...|245|
 |---+---+---|
 |.68|2..|9..|
 |...|8..|4.3|
 |.9.|7..|...|
 *-----------*

[JPF]

4 steps ; 26 clues ; no symmetry

Code: Select all

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



JPF

[JPF]

3 steps ; 27 clues ; no symmetry

Code: Select all

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



JPF

[Pat]

without filtering,
you are responsible for ensuring that each puzzle can in fact be solved by "singles"

any puzzle not solved will incorrectly show the number of steps last found in a successfully-solved puzzle

i hope gsf fixes this

listing invalid (or unsolvable via disabled constraint methods) puzzles is tricky
many times they are the puzzles of interest

the fix, which I'll update tomorrow, will list the puzzle info up to the point it was determined to be invalid/unsolvable
thanks


now, space and special character quoting on the command-lines is the root of tso's problems and the Excel reformat

I posted command-lines suitable for Unix shell
the two Windows methods, batch via cmd.exe and lnk shortcuts,
parse the command-line differently
3 different parses -- no wonder we had trouble communicating problems

could someone point me to docs describing Windows batch vs. shortcut command lines
especially what happens to % and space


you can format Excel-ready records if you can get this -f option past the command-line parse:

Code: Select all

-f%#0v\t%(clues)x\t%(steps)x

thanks, gsf!!

the following does work in the Windows XP command-line:

sudoku -B -q{FN}-G -f%#0v\t%(clues)x\t%(minimal)[-][M][SM]x\t%(valid*steps)x input.TXT > output.TXT

TABs come out fine,
Excel will like it.

still couldn't get the -e to work,
but the expression valid*steps effectively solves my problem in that area -
shows as 0 steps for any puzzle not solved.

should i read the manual to see if there's a way to output the puzzle with dots (rather than zeroes) in the empty cells?

[gsf]

still couldn't get the -e to work,
but the expression valid*steps effectively solves my problem in that area -
shows as 0 steps for any puzzle not solved.

should i read the manual to see if there's a way to output the puzzle with dots (rather than zeroes) in the empty cells?

thanks, new .exe is posted
valid*steps is a neat workaround
you can also use %? as the first format chars to only list valid puzzles

%v lists the puzzle with . for empty cells

[Pat]

%v lists the puzzle with . for empty cells

hey, gsf, you'll never get anyone to read the manual if you promptly answer each silly question! (i never even looked at the manual - just worked from the posted example.)

[JPF]

Ocean,

I’m sure these explanations are very useful...
but I would like to suggest that all these questions/answers related to the utilization of specific programs will be put in a specific thread.

JPF

[daj95376]

gsf,

I don't have any docs to supply, but I may be able to help a bit with your issues on BATch files. When a BATch file is invoked, arguments may be passed to it. Inside the BATch file, arguments are represented as %1 .. %9. If you wish to actually use the % character as an argument being passed to an executable inside the BATch file, then you need to preceed it with an additional % character; i.e., %%1 will pass %1 to the executable.

I don't understand your problem with spaces, but I do know that a single argument can not contain a space character unless the entire argument is enclosed in quotes ("). Don't even ask about passing quotes inside an argument.

[gsf]

I’m sure these explanations are very useful...
but I would like to suggest that all these questions/answers related to the utilization of specific programs will be put in a specific thread.

you are correct and I apoligize for the divergence
I'll post a FAQ shortly and divert future questions there

[JPF]

Thanks gsf,
I'm looking forward to reading your FAQ
JPF

[Ocean]

JPF: One new table entry, and one improvement. Most table entries are filled in now, but probably room for a good deal improvement yet.

To the 'side discussions': It doesn't matter to me where things are discussed. Normally discussions in a thread will have relevance to the main theme, other times interesting digressions may take place.

Improvements on type II:

Code: Select all

#Type II. 8 steps. 20 clues. Minimal.[L20][S8][M]
...|..1|23.
4..|...|5..
56.|.7.|...
---+---+---
3..|...|...
..8|...|9..
...|...|..5
---+---+---
...|.5.|.67
..9|...|..4
.82|3..|...
#
#Type II. 7 steps. 20 clues. Minimal.[L20][S7][M]
...|..1|23.
3..|...|4..
45.|.6.|...
---+---+---
9..|...|...
..7|...|8..
...|...|..4
---+---+---
...|.4.|.56
..8|...|..9
.72|3..|...
#
#Type II. 6 steps. 20 clues. Minimal. [L20][S6][M]
...|..1|.2.
3.4|..5|...
...|..6|.7.
---+---+---
528|...|...
...|...|...
...|...|314
---+---+---
.1.|2..|...
...|3..|5.8
.6.|7..|...
#

[JPF]

To open new fields :

Type VI, 1 step, 44 clues

Code: Select all

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



Type VII, 1 step, 40 clues

Code: Select all

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



JPF

[JPF]

Some more new entries :

Type VI, 2 steps, 35 clues

Code: Select all

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



Type VII, 2 steps, 34 clues

Code: Select all


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



Type IV, 1 step, 45 clues

Code: Select all


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



JPF