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Sudoku solving algorithms
Algorithms to complete a sudoku / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A standard Sudoku contains 81 cells, in a 9×9 grid, and has 9 boxes, each box being the intersection of the first, middle, or last 3 rows, and the first, middle, or last 3 columns. Each cell may contain a number from one to nine, and each number can only occur once in each row, column, and box. A Sudoku starts with some cells containing numbers (clues), and the goal is to solve the remaining cells. Proper Sudokus have one solution.[citation needed] Players and investigators use a wide range of computer algorithms to solve Sudokus, study their properties, and make new puzzles, including Sudokus with interesting symmetries and other properties.
![A typical Sudoku puzzle, a 9x9 grid with several numbers missing](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Sudoku_Puzzle_by_L2G-20050714_standardized_layout.svg/320px-Sudoku_Puzzle_by_L2G-20050714_standardized_layout.svg.png)
There are several computer algorithms that will solve 9×9 puzzles (n = 9) in fractions of a second, but combinatorial explosion occurs as n increases, creating limits to the properties of Sudokus that can be constructed, analyzed, and solved as n increases.