The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[sheila08]

Does anyone know of any samurai sudoku solvers?

Sheila

[Hakeswill]

http://sudoku.top-notch.co.uk/samurai.asp has been around for a while, but they charge (a small amount) for using it.

[vidarino]

Hmm, isn't it possible to use any 3x3 solver to solve the individual pieces separately (as much as possible, at least), and copy discovered numbers over to the adjacent ones? And when one part has stalled, go to work on an adjacent one in order to get more clues.

Assuming that's how Samurai Sudokus work, that is. I honestly haven't checked.

[CathyW]

Rarely - the whole point of Samurais is that the overlapping parts are crucial. I have previously tried to dub in an individual part to Pappocom or Simple Sudoku and usually find the puzzle is "invalid" or has several solutions because it can't take account of the overlapping box.

[PaulIQ164]

The suggestion being made, though, is that you solve one of the constituent puzzles as far as you can, and any numbers in overlapping boxes that are solved are transferred into the appropriate puzzle, and you keep cycling through the five puzzles like this. I think it might work for some easier Samurai, but it's not a guaranteed method; sometimes you have to use more subtle knowledge about the overlaps (e.g., if 3 in box 9 of the top-left puzzle has to be in row 7, you know the 3 in row 1 of the central puzzle has to be in box 1. Agh! It's hard to explain.)

Aaanyway, what I think might work is if you copied across from one puzzle to the next not just the completed numbers, but the entire candidate lists.

[Animator]

Why try to explain it when it's hard? It's easier with an example.

Example using the top left grid and the central grid:

Code: Select all

-------------------------
| * * * | * * * | * * * |
| * * * | * * * | * * * |
| * * * | * * * | * * * |
|-------+-------+-------|
| * * * | * * * | * * * |
| * * * | * * * | * * * |
| * * * | * * * | * * * |
|-------+-------+-------+----------------
| * * * | * * * | * * * | * * * | * * * |
| * 3 * | * * * | * * * | * * * | * * 3 |
| * * * | * 3 * | * * * | * * * | * * * |
----------------+-------+-------+-------|
                | * * * | * * * | * * * |
                | * * * | * 3 * | * * * |
                | * * * | * * * | * * * |
                +-------+-------+-------|
                | * * * | * * * | * * * |
                | * * * | * * 3 | * * * |
                | * * * | * * * | * * * |
                -------------------------


If you combine the two grids then you can fill in r9c10.

If you look at the top left grid separately then you know that either r7c1, r7c2 or r7c3 is the number 3. Not much help there

If you only look at the central grid then all you know is that either r7c10 or r9c10 (or r1c4, r3c4) is the number 3.

Updated the example to explain what PaulIQ164 means.

[PaulIQ164]

Very nice thanks.

[CathyW]

Aaanyway, what I think might work is if you copied across from one puzzle to the next not just the completed numbers, but the entire candidate lists.

Possibly - but you can't use Pappocom software to do this. If the program won't verify the puzzle you can't do anything! If you're lucky on some of the easier Samurai's, the central grid may be OK as it's more likely to be symmetrical and obviously if you've got the central grid solved, you've basically got four separate puzzles left to do.

[nj3h]

I really recommend Sadman Sudoku since you can enter in the non-symmetrical puzzles and get the candidate list. This program is just superb.

George

[CathyW]

Yes - Sadman is very good. So is Simple Sudoku. It makes me a feel a little disloyal but I rarely use Pappocom these days - the other programs are easier to use and more flexible. Hopefully Wayne will have time soon to update his program.

Having said that, I still prefer to solve with pencil and paper and use the programs to dub in the ones I'm stuck on, or puzzles posted on these forums!

[sheila08]

I found a samurai sudoku solver here

http://andrew.bromage.org/sudoku/

It isn't elegant, but it works, I think.

[PaulIQ164]

Actually, I remember I did find a Samurai Solver once. Actually it could solve any overlapping-sudoku puzzle. But it was very hard to use, not least because you had to set they layout of the puzzle first.

[sheila08]

I found a samurai sudoku solver here

Samurai sudoku solver.

http://andrew.bromage.org/sudoku/samurai.cgi

It isn't elegant, but it works, I think.

[

[MCC]

I found a samurai sudoku solver here

[url][url=http://andrew.bromage.org/sudoku/[/url]] http://andrew.bromage.org/sudoku/[/url][/url]

It isn't elegant, but it works, I think.

Don't know what happened to sheila08's link, but this link works.

http://andrew.bromage.org/sudoku/

MCC

P.S. Sheila you put a space after url and before http.

[sheila08]

Samurai Sudoku
http://www.samurai-sudoku.com/

Samurai Sudoku posts a new samurai puzzle each day, and the site includes a
free solver that can give hints and step-by-step solutions. Multiple digits can
be typed into each cell to keep track of cell candidates. Puzzles can be printed
at several sizes if you prefer solving with pen and paper.

An easy puzzle is posted each Monday, with puzzles getting harder through the
week, culminating on Friday with a Fiendish puzzle needing x-wings, triples and
sometimes even swordfish to solve.

I found this on the Yahoo sudokuworld group.

Sheila