Standard format for puzzle description

briturner

Greetings again,

Is there a standard format for representing Sudoku puzzles in Text?

Simple 9x9 puzzles are easy, 81 characters, unknown spots are '.' or '-'.
16x16 are the same method, 256 characters
25x25 can be a 625 char line, or 25 lines of 25 chars each.

What about jigsaw puzzles, or Samuri sudoku, or general overlapping, etc.? Is there a standard method for representing these in text files?

Thanks
brit

Lunatic

daj95376

briturner · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:23 pm Post subject:

Greetings,

I found another web site (I believe related to this one) that had items like JigSaw puzzles that you could cut and paste a text string to define the puzzle.

For example it starts like this (full text not posted since it is sooo long):
SumoCueV1=21J0+0J0=20J0+2J1=29J1=13J1+5J1+5J1=10J2

in the puzzle section, there ia an old not about not being able to encode Samurai puzzles, but not they are. Just wondering how to decode these.

Thanks
Brian

m_b_metcalf · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 3:55 pm Post subject:

The two ways that Samurais are typically encoded in this Forum can be seen here and at the links given there.

Regards,

Mike Metcalf

Lunatic · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:14 pm Post subject:

Here is the Perfect Sudoku format description for killer sudokus:

a single string is used, no blanks or line breaks allowed
a colon is placed after each field.
3 mandatory fields to begin with:

1. Format: "3x3"
2. Diagonals: "" or "d"
3. Killer: "k"

For normal killers, the string always starts with "3x3::k:"

Next are 81 fields, containing a Number: (cageSum * 256) + cageID

where cageID is a unique number identifying the cage. Considering the cells numbered top left to bottom right from 0 to 80, the first cell from each new cage encountered is the cageID. The first cage starts allways with cell 0, so the fisrt CageID=0

Reverse calculating:
Int ( Number / 256 ) = CageSum
Number MOD 256 = CageID (reminder)
_________________
Marc
~~~<><~~~<><~~~<><~~~<><~~~

briturner · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:35 pm Post subject:

Thank you, I will try decoding this, see if it all works out.

I am anxious to try these different puzzles. Adding diagonals should be easy (guess I can have locked candidates in a diagonal, so I will need to fix that). A bit more work for the other part of a killer sudoku.

Something to work on for my flight back home (off interviewing at the moment).

Thanks
Brit