Sudoku

Here are a few sodoku solvers coded up in Haskell...

Serious, Non-Deterministic Solver

Here is a solver by CaleGibbard [1]. It possibly looks even more naïve than it actually is. This does a backtracking search, trying possibilities until it finds one which works, and backtracking when it can no longer make a legal move.

import MonadNondet (option)
import Sudoku
import System
import Control.Monad

forM = flip mapM

solve = forM [(i,j) | i <- [1..9], j <- [1..9]] $ \(i,j) -> do
    v <- valAt (i,j)       -- ^ for each board position
    when (v == 0) $ do     -- if it's empty (we represent that with a 0)
        a <- option [1..9] -- pick a number
        place (i,j) a      -- and try to put it there

main = do
    [f] <- getArgs
    xs <- readFile f
    putStrLn $ evalSudoku $ do { readSudoku xs; solve; showSudoku }

Now, to the meat of the thing, the monad which makes the above look so nice. We construct a monad which is suitable for maintaining Sudoku grids and trying options nondeterministically. Note that outside of this module, it's impossible to create a state which has an invalid Sudoku grid, since the only way to update the state handles the check to ensure that the move is legal.

{-# OPTIONS_GHC -fglasgow-exts #-}
module Sudoku 
    (Sudoku,
     readSudoku,
     runSudoku,
     evalSudoku,
     execSudoku,
     showSudoku,
     valAt, rowAt, colAt, boxAt,
     place)
     where
import Data.Array.Diff
import MonadNondet
import Control.Monad.State

-- Nondet here is a drop-in replacement for [] (the list monad) which just runs a little faster.
newtype Sudoku a = Sudoku (StateT (DiffUArray (Int,Int) Int) Nondet a)
    deriving (Functor, Monad, MonadPlus)

{- -- That is, we could also use the following, which works exactly the same way.
newtype Sudoku a = Sudoku (StateT (DiffUArray (Int,Int) Int) [] a)
    deriving (Functor, Monad, MonadPlus)
-}

initialSudokuArray = listArray ((1,1),(9,9)) [0,0..]

runSudoku (Sudoku k) = runNondet (runStateT k initialSudokuArray)

evalSudoku = fst . runSudoku
execSudoku = snd . runSudoku

showSudoku = Sudoku $ do
    a <- get
    return $ unlines [unwords [show (a ! (i,j)) | j <- [1..9]] | i <- [1..9]]

readSudoku :: String -> Sudoku ()
readSudoku xs = sequence_ $ do
    (i,ys) <- zip [1..9] (lines xs)
    (j,n)  <- zip [1..9] (words ys)
    return $ place (i,j) (read n)

valAt' (i,j) = do
    a <- get
    return (a ! (i,j))

rowAt' (i,j) = mapM valAt' [(i, k) | k <- [1..9]]

colAt' (i,j) = mapM valAt' [(k, j) | k <- [1..9]] 

boxAt' (i,j) = mapM valAt' [(i' + u, j' + v) | u <- [1..3], v <- [1..3]]
  where i' = ((i-1) `div` 3) * 3
        j' = ((j-1) `div` 3) * 3

valAt = Sudoku . valAt'
rowAt = Sudoku . rowAt'
colAt = Sudoku . colAt'
boxAt = Sudoku . boxAt'

-- This is the least trivial part.
-- It just guards to make sure that the move is legal,
-- and updates the array in the state if it is.
place :: (Int,Int) -> Int -> Sudoku ()
place (i,j) n = Sudoku $ do
    v <- valAt' (i,j)
    when (v == 0 && n /= 0) $ do
        rs <- rowAt' (i,j)
        cs <- colAt' (i,j)
        bs <- boxAt' (i,j)
        guard $ not . any (== n) $ rs ++ cs ++ bs
        a <- get
        put (a // [((i,j),n)])

This is a fast NonDeterminism monad. It's a drop-in replacement for the list monad in this case. It's twice as fast when compiled with optimisations but a little slower without. You can also find it on the wiki at NonDeterminism.

I've made a few small modifications to this one to hopefully make it more concretely readable.

{-# OPTIONS_GHC -fglasgow-exts #-}

module MonadNondet where

import Control.Monad
import Control.Monad.Trans

import Control.Monad.Identity

newtype NondetT m a
  = NondetT { foldNondetT :: (forall b. (a -> m b -> m b) -> m b -> m b) }

runNondetT :: (Monad m) => NondetT m a -> m a
runNondetT m = foldNondetT m (\x xs -> return x) (error "No solution found.")

instance (Functor m) => Functor (NondetT m) where
  fmap f (NondetT g) = NondetT (\cons nil -> g (cons . f) nil)

instance (Monad m) => Monad (NondetT m) where
  return a = NondetT (\cons nil -> cons a nil)
  m >>= k  = NondetT (\cons nil -> foldNondetT m (\x -> foldNondetT (k x) cons) nil)

instance (Monad m) => MonadPlus (NondetT m) where
  mzero         = NondetT (\cons nil -> nil)
  m1 `mplus` m2 = NondetT (\cons -> foldNondetT m1 cons . foldNondetT m2 cons)

instance MonadTrans NondetT where
  lift m = NondetT (\cons nil -> m >>= \a -> cons a nil)

newtype Nondet a = Nondet (NondetT Identity a) deriving (Functor, Monad, MonadPlus)
runNondet (Nondet x) = runIdentity (runNondetT x)

foldNondet :: Nondet a -> (a -> b -> b) -> b -> b
foldNondet (Nondet nd) cons nil =
   runIdentity $ foldNondetT nd (\x xs -> return (cons x (runIdentity xs))) (return nil)

option :: (MonadPlus m) => [a] -> m a
option = msum . map return

Simple Solver

By AlsonKemp. This solver is probably similar to Cale's but I don't grok the non-deterministic monad...

Note: this solver is exhaustive and will output all of the solutions, not just the first one. In order to make it non-exchaustive, add a case statement to solve' in order to check "r" and branch on the result.

import System
import Control.Monad
import Data.List
import Data.Array.IO

type SodokuBoard = IOArray Int Int

main = do
    [f] <- getArgs
    a <- newArray (1, 81) 0
    readFile f >>= readSodokuBoard a
    putStrLn "Original:"
    printSodokuBoard a
    putStrLn "Solutions:"
    solve a (1,1)

readSodokuBoard a xs = sequence_ $ do (i,ys) <- zip [1..9] (lines xs)
                                      (j,n)  <- zip [1..9] (words ys)
                                      return $ writeBoard a (j,i) (read n)

printSodokuBoard a =
   let printLine a y =
     mapM (\x -> readBoard a (x,y)) [1..9] >>= mapM_ (putStr . show) in
                     putStrLn "-----------" >> 
                     mapM_ (\y -> putStr "|" >> printLine a y >> putStrLn "|") [1..9] >> 
                     putStrLn "-----------"

-- the meat of the program.  Checks the current square.
-- If 0, then get the list of nums and try to "solve' "
-- Otherwise, go to the next square.
solve :: SodokuBoard  -> (Int, Int) -> IO (Maybe SodokuBoard)
solve a (10,y) = solve a (1,y+1)
solve a (_, 10)= printSodokuBoard a >> return (Just a)
solve a (x,y)  = do v <- readBoard a (x,y)
                    case v of
                      0 -> availableNums a (x,y) >>= solve' a (x,y)
                      _ ->  solve a (x+1,y)
     -- solve' handles the backtacking
  where solve' a (x,y) []     = return Nothing
        solve' a (x,y) (v:vs) = do writeBoard a (x,y) v   -- put a guess onto the board
                                   r <- solve a (x+1,y)
                                   writeBoard a (x,y) 0   -- remove the guess from the board
                                   solve' a (x,y) vs      -- recurse over the remainder of the list

-- get the "taken" numbers from a row, col or box.
getRowNums a y = sequence [readBoard a (x',y) | x' <- [1..9]]
getColNums a x = sequence [readBoard a (x,y') | y' <- [1..9]]
getBoxNums a (x,y) = sequence [readBoard a (x'+u, y'+v) | u <- [0..2], v <- [0..2]] 
  where x' = (3 * ((x-1) `quot` 3)) + 1
        y' = (3 * ((y-1) `quot` 3)) + 1

-- return the numbers that are available for a particular square
availableNums a (x,y) = do r <- getRowNums a y 
                           c <- getColNums a x
                           b <- getBoxNums a (x,y)
                           return $ [0..9] \\ (r `union` c `union` b)  

-- aliases of read and write array that flatten the index
readBoard a (x,y) = readArray a (x+9*(y-1))
writeBoard a (x,y) e = writeArray a (x+9*(y-1)) e

Complete decision tree

By Henning Thielemann.

module Sudoku where

{-
  This is inspired by John Hughes "Why Functional Programming Matters".
  We build a complete decision tree.
  That is, all alternatives in a certain depth
  have the same number of determined values.
  At the bottom of the tree all possible solutions can be found.
  Actually the algorithm is very stupid:
  In each depth we look for the field with the least admissible choices of numbers
  and prune the alternative branches for the other fields.
-}

import Data.Char (ord, chr)
import Data.Array (Array, range, (!), (//))
import Data.Tree (Tree)
import qualified Data.Tree as Tree
import Data.List (sort, minimumBy)
import Data.Maybe (catMaybes, isNothing, fromMaybe, fromJust)
import qualified Data.Array as Array

{-
Example:

ghci -Wall Sudoku.hs

*Sudoku> mapM putCLn (solutions exampleHawiki0)
-}


{- [[ATree]] contains a list of possible alternatives for each position -}
data ATree a = ANode T [[ATree a]]

type Coord   = Int
type Address = (Int,Int,Int,Int)
type Element = Int

type T        = Array Address (Maybe Element)
type Complete = Array Address Element

fieldBounds :: (Address, Address)
fieldBounds = ((0,0,0,0), (2,2,2,2))

squareRange :: [(Coord, Coord)]
squareRange = range ((0,0), (2,2))

alphabet :: [Element]
alphabet = [1..9]



{- * solution -}

{-
  Given two sorted lists,
  remove the elements of the first list from the second one.
-}
deleteSorted :: Ord a => [a] -> [a] -> [a]
deleteSorted [] ys = ys
deleteSorted _  [] = []
deleteSorted (x:xs) (y:ys) =
   case compare x y of
      EQ -> deleteSorted xs ys
      LT -> deleteSorted xs (y:ys)
      GT -> y : deleteSorted (x:xs) ys

admissibleNumbers :: [[Maybe Element]] -> [Element]
admissibleNumbers =
   foldl (flip deleteSorted) alphabet .
   map (sort . catMaybes)

admissibleAdditions :: T -> Address -> [Element]
admissibleAdditions sudoku (i,j,k,l) =
   admissibleNumbers (map ($ sudoku)
      [selectRow    (i,k),
       selectColumn (j,l),
       selectSquare (i,j)])

allAdmissibleAdditions :: T -> [(Address, [Element])]
allAdmissibleAdditions sudoku =
   let adds addr =
          (addr, admissibleAdditions sudoku addr)
   in  map adds
           (map fst (filter (isNothing . snd)
                            (Array.assocs sudoku)))



solutionTree :: T -> ATree T
solutionTree sudoku =
   let new (addr,elms) =
          map (\elm -> solutionTree (sudoku // [(addr, Just elm)])) elms
   in  ANode sudoku (map new (allAdmissibleAdditions sudoku))

treeAltToStandard :: ATree T -> Tree T
treeAltToStandard (ANode sudoku subs) =
   Tree.Node sudoku (concatMap (map treeAltToStandard) subs)

{- Convert a tree with alternatives for each position (ATree)
   into a normal tree by choosing one position and its alternative values.
   We need to consider only one position per level
   because the remaining positions are processed in the sub-levels.
   With other words: Choosing more than one position
   would lead to multiple reports of the same solution.

   For reasons of efficiency
   we choose the position with the least number of alternatives.
   If this number is zero, the numbers tried so far are wrong.
   If this number is one, then the choice is unique, but maybe still wrong.
   If the number of alternatives is larger,
   we have to check each alternative.
-}
treeAltToStandardOptimize :: ATree T -> Tree T
treeAltToStandardOptimize (ANode sudoku subs) =
   let chooseMinLen [] = []
       chooseMinLen xs = minimumBy compareLength xs
   in  Tree.Node sudoku (chooseMinLen
          (map (map treeAltToStandardOptimize) subs))

maybeComplete :: T -> Maybe Complete
maybeComplete sudoku =
   fmap (Array.array fieldBounds)
        (mapM (uncurry (fmap . (,))) (Array.assocs sudoku))

{- All leafs are at the same depth,
   namely the number of undetermined fields.
   That's why we can safely select all Sudokus at the lowest level. -}
solutions :: T -> [Complete]
solutions sudoku =
   let err = error "The lowest level should contain complete Sudokus only."
       {- "last'" is more efficient than "last" here
          because the program does not have to check
          whether deeper levels exist.
          We know that the tree is as deep
          as the number of undefined fields.
          This means that dropMatch returns a singleton list.
          We don't check that
          because then we would lose the efficiency again. -}
       last' = head . dropMatch (filter isNothing (Array.elems sudoku))
   in  map (fromMaybe err . maybeComplete)
           (last' (Tree.levels
             (treeAltToStandardOptimize (solutionTree sudoku))))



{- * transformations (can be used for construction, too) -}

standard :: Complete
standard =
   Array.listArray fieldBounds
      (map (\(i,j,k,l) -> mod (j+k) 3 * 3 + mod (i+l) 3 + 1)
           (range fieldBounds))


exampleHawiki0, exampleHawiki1 :: T
exampleHawiki0 = fromString (unlines [
      " 5  6   1",
      "  48   7 ",
      "8      52",
      "2   57 3 ",
      "         ",
      " 3 69   5",
      "79      8",
      " 1   65  ",
      "5   3  6 "
   ])

exampleHawiki1 = fromString (unlines [
      "    6  8 ",
      " 2       ",
      "  1      ",
      " 7    1 2",
      "5   3    ",
      "      4  ",
      "  42 1   ",
      "3  7  6  ",
      "       5 "
   ])




check :: Complete -> Bool
check sudoku =
   let checkParts select =
          all (\addr -> sort (select addr sudoku) == alphabet) squareRange
   in  all checkParts [selectRow, selectColumn, selectSquare]

selectRow, selectColumn, selectSquare ::
   (Coord,Coord) -> Array Address element -> [element]
selectRow (i,k) sudoku =
   map (sudoku!) (range ((i,0,k,0), (i,2,k,2)))
--   map (sudoku!) (map (\(j,l) -> (i,j,k,l)) squareRange)
selectColumn (j,l) sudoku =
   map (sudoku!) (range ((0,j,0,l), (2,j,2,l)))
selectSquare (i,j) sudoku =
   map (sudoku!) (range ((i,j,0,0), (i,j,2,2)))


{- * conversion from and to strings -}

put, putLn :: T -> IO ()
put   sudoku = putStr   (toString sudoku)
putLn sudoku = putStrLn (toString sudoku)

putC, putCLn :: Complete -> IO ()
putC   sudoku = putStr   (toString (fmap Just sudoku))
putCLn sudoku = putStrLn (toString (fmap Just sudoku))

fromString :: String -> T
fromString str =
   Array.array fieldBounds (concat
      (zipWith (\(i,k) -> map (\((j,l),x) -> ((i,j,k,l),x)))
         squareRange
         (map (zip squareRange . map charToElem) (lines str))))

toString :: T -> String
toString sudoku =
   unlines
      (map (\(i,k) -> map (\(j,l) -> elemToChar (sudoku!(i,j,k,l)))
                          squareRange)
           squareRange)

charToElem :: Char -> Maybe Element
charToElem c =
   toMaybe ('0'<=c && c<='9') (ord c - ord '0')

elemToChar :: Maybe Element -> Char
elemToChar =
   maybe ' ' (\c -> chr (ord '0' + c))


{- * helper functions -}

nest :: Int -> (a -> a) -> a -> a
nest 0 _ x = x
nest n f x = f (nest (n-1) f x)

toMaybe :: Bool -> a -> Maybe a
toMaybe False _ = Nothing
toMaybe True  x = Just x

compareLength :: [a] -> [b] -> Ordering
compareLength (_:xs) (_:ys) = compareLength xs ys
compareLength []     []     = EQ
compareLength (_:_)  []     = GT
compareLength []     (_:_)  = LT

{- | Drop as many elements as the first list is long -}
dropMatch :: [b] -> [a] -> [a]
dropMatch xs ys =
   map fromJust (dropWhile isNothing
      (zipWith (toMaybe . null) (iterate (drop 1) xs) ys))

Add Your Own

If you have a Sudoku solver you're proud of, put it here. This ought to be a good way of helping people learn some fun, intermediate-advanced techniques in Haskell.

Test Boards

Here's an input file to test the solvers on. Zeroes represent blanks.

0 5 0 0 6 0 0 0 1
0 0 4 8 0 0 0 7 0
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 2
2 0 0 0 5 7 0 3 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 3 0 6 9 0 0 0 5
7 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 8
0 1 0 0 0 6 5 0 0
5 0 0 0 3 0 0 6 0

A nefarious one:

0 0 0 0 6 0 0 8 0
0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 7 0 0 0 0 1 0 2
5 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0
0 0 4 2 0 1 0 0 0
3 0 0 7 0 0 6 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 

Chris Kuklewicz writes, "You can go get the 36,628 distict minimal puzzles from csse.uwa.edu that have only 17 clues. Then you can run all of them through your program to locate the most evil ones, and use them on your associates."