Sudoku Solver

Overview

The Sudoku Solver is a C program that uses a backtracking algorithm to solve 9x9 Sudoku puzzles. The solver reads an initial board configuration from a file, solves the puzzle, and prints both the initial and solved states of the board.

Features

• Backtracking Algorithm: Efficiently solves 9x9 Sudoku puzzles.
• Input Handling: Reads Sudoku puzzles from text files.
• Board Validation: Ensures that the board adheres to Sudoku rules during the solving process.
• Test Suite: Includes a test suite to validate the solver against various Sudoku puzzles.
• Command-Line Interface: Simple and easy-to-use CLI for running the solver.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• File Structure
• Testing
• Contributing
• License

Installation

Prerequisites

• GCC (GNU Compiler Collection)
• Make
• Bash

Building the Project

To build the project, clone the repository and run the following command:

make

This will compile the sudoku executable.

Usage

Solving a Sudoku Puzzle

To solve a Sudoku puzzle, run the sudoku program with the path to a text file containing the puzzle:

./sudoku <FILENAME>

Puzzle File Format

Each Sudoku puzzle should be represented as a 9x9 grid in a text file, with empty cells represented by spaces or any other non-numeric character that you choose to use.

Tip

Check out ASCIIFlow to build text Sudoku boards fast and easy.

Example:

74  1 5
   3   9
596   4
    42
   1   5
 81  7 39
   6
 3      8

Testing

Running the Test Suite

To run the test suite, which compiles and executes the tests against various puzzles, use:

chmod +x tests/test_sudoku.sh
./tests/test_sudoku.sh

This script will compile the test suite, run the tests on the puzzles, and display the results.

Cleaning Up

To clean up compiled files and binaries, run:

make clean

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.