Do you like doing puzzles? (i. e. word searches, crosswords, sudoku, etc)?

[Jazzy54]

I love word searches. 😌

[slatyb]

I do the New York Times crossword every day. I wrote a computer program to solve Sudoku. Or troll less time to write the program that it would have taken me to solve the puzzle.

[slatyb]

It took less time... about 15 minutes to write the program. Maybe 20 lines of code.

[abc3643]

I'd like to know more about the Soduko code. Please enlighten me.

[abc3643]

Sudoku, I mean.

[slatyb]

@abc3643 Brute force backtracking. Start at the first empty square. Find the first number than can fit there. Move to the next square and repeat. Either a solution is found or you reach a square where no number can fit. Back up and increase the number in the previous square if possible. Keep moving forward and back until puzzle is solved. I wrote it in Perl. It took a few seconds. In a faster language it would run in under one second.

[abc3643]

In AI, we'd call that a "depth-first search". Very good, thanks. What language?

[slatyb]

@abc3643 Perl. It's not longer popular but it's great for small problems.

[abc3643]

I never did get a chance to learn Perl or Python or much C++ although I have had to wallow in C which is self-taught for me.

[slatyb]

@abc3643 I like Python but have not written a lot of it.

[slatyb]

@abc3643 I'm familiar with DFS, and it's the same thing. I think of DFS as searching a theoretically fixed tree while a backtracking algorithm changes the tree as it backtracks. I guess that's a distinction without a difference.

[strateguy632]

the rules for valid words are inconsistent and not usable so i gave up.

[jennifer_bloom]

I used to enjoy the computer game puzzles where you have a quest to complete and I also liked strategic 2 player board games like armada that you can play online

[comekitty]

Yes, I like word searches and crossword puzzles 🙂 sudoku not so much

[PBandJ_Nerd]

Yeah. I like word searches though, I hate crosswords and things like sudoku.

[smilelots]

I like to do them as well it keeps me and my mind off of things and helps my brain some days.. keeps me out of trouble

[gothbxtch]

no, haha i’m really bad at it! both of my siblings love them

[TrueConfection]

Crosswords are my favorite!

[SnowedIn]

Word searches, crosswords and actual puzzles, yes.

[MysticAngel5000]

I like crosswords and word searches.

[Zebrina]

I like word search and sudoku.

[jamesgoldman]

Year, helps keep the mind sharp

[Meropatrick]

Yes crosswords great brain work

[Rangers]

I don't like anything

[clampfan101]

Yes, puzzles are fun. I like Scrabble.

[Sparkie460]

I also love word search

[dsrice10]

Yes, I like doing Word Searches and Sudoku

[collie22]

Sudoku in the news paper is fun

[Anonymous]

Suduko.

[BLP11520]

Sure always have