sudoku solver with constraints and backtracking in python

Question

I realise that this problem has been discussed a lot here, and I've read everything. However, my program doesn't work. Well, it solves grids of easy and medium diffuculty, but when it comes to some difficult puzzles it seems to get into an infinite cycle.

Again, I'va read SO many articles on this topic, but still I cannot understand why my program doesn't work. I would be very grateful if you could explain it to me.

I start with some helper functions, which work, so they're not of a great importance, but I'll post them - maybe you'll give any feedback to them too

So, I have a list of lists with integers:

[[5, 0, 0, 7, 1, 9, 0, 0, 4], 
[0, 0, 1, 0, 3, 0, 5, 0, 0], 
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], 
[0, 8, 5, 9, 7, 2, 6, 4, 0], 
[0, 0, 0, 6, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], 
[0, 2, 6, 3, 8, 5, 9, 1, 0], 
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], 
[0, 0, 3, 0, 5, 0, 2, 0, 0], 
[8, 0, 0, 4, 9, 7, 0, 0, 6]]

First, I define some helper functions

from copy import deepcopy

def nice_print(grid): #just printing tool
    for line in grid:
        print(line)

def box(row,col,grid): #returns a list of numbers that are in the same box 
    row = (row // 3)*3 #with grid[row][col]
    col = (col // 3)*3
    return grid[line][row:row+3:]+grid[line+1][row:row+3:]+grid[line+2][row:row+3:]

Now I need to check if there are any numbers that can be easily put in the grid

def constraints(grid):
    ngrid = deepcopy(grid)

    #in every cell with '0' i put a set{1..9}
    for i in range(9):
        for j in range(9):
            if grid[i][j] == 0:
                ngrid[i][j] = set(range(1,10))

    #checking all conditions
    for k in range(81):
        for i in range(9):
            for j in range(9):
                if type(ngrid[i][j]) == set:
                    #square
                    if not ngrid[i][j].isdisjoint(set(box(i,j,grid))):
                        ngrid[i][j].difference_update(set(box(i,j,grid)))
                    #line
                    if not ngrid[i][j].isdisjoint(set(grid[i])):
                        ngrid[i][j].difference_update(set(grid[i]))  
                    #row
                    if not ngrid[i][j].isdisjoint(set(list(zip(*grid))[j])):
                        ngrid[i][j].difference_update(set(list(zip(*grid))[j]))   

                    #if there is the last remaining number i put it in the
                    #first grid and change the type of ngrid's cell to int
                    if len(ngrid[i][j]) == 1:
                        grid[i][j] = list(ngrid[i][j])[0]
                        ngrid[i][j] = list(ngrid[i][j])[0]

    #i parse from set&int to string
    for i in range(9):
        for j in range(9):
            if type(ngrid[i][j])==set:
                grid[i][j]=''
                for item in ngrid[i][j]:
                    grid[i][j]+=str(item)
            else:
                grid[i][j]=str(grid[i][j])            
    return grid

Then i define what is it -- to be solved...

def solved(grid):
    ans = True
    for num in range(1,10):
        num=str(num)
        #line
        for line in grid:
            if line.count(num) != 1:
                ans = False
                break
        #row
        for row in list(zip(*grid)):
            if row.count(num) != 1:
                ans = False
                break
        #square
        for i in [0,3,6]:
            for j in [0,3,6]:
                if box(i,j,grid).count(num) != 1:
                    ans = False
                    break
    return ans

Now I define some more helper functions

def grid_to_list(grid):
    lst = []
    for line in grid:
        lst+=line
    return lst

def parse_coordinate(s):
    row = s // 9
    col = s % 9
    return row,col

def choice(x):
    if len(x) > 1:
        return len(x)
    else:
        return 10

def check_constraints(grid,value,row,col):
    ans = True
    if grid[row].count(value) > 0:
        ans = False
    if list(zip(*grid)).count(value) > 0:
        ans = False
    if box(row,col,grid).count(value) > 0:
        ans = False
    return ans

And finally we get to the main part of this story -- backtracking

def explore(grid):
    if solved(grid):
        return True #YAY!!!
    else:
        while not solved(grid):
            lst = grid_to_list(grid)   #i parse grid to list because i need
            sth = min(*lst,key=choice) #to find the cell with min length
            pos = lst.index(sth)
            sth = lst[pos]
            row,col = parse_coordinate(pos)
            for n in sth: 
                if check_constraints(grid,n,row,col): #if it's safe to place
                    grid[row][col] = n                #sth in grid[row][col]
                    if explore(grid):                 #i put it there and
                        return True                   #continue exploring
                    grid[row][col]=sth #if this doesn't work i return to the cell the previous value
            return False

Some other functions: getting it back together

def str_to_int(grid):
    for i in range(9):
        for j in range(9):
            grid[i][j]=int(grid[i][j])
    return grid

def solve(grid):
    grid = constraints(grid)
    if explore(grid):
        nice_print(str_to_int(grid))
    else:
        print("there seems to be a problem")

So my program returns the following solution to the grid above:

[5, 6, 8, 7, 1, 9, 3, 2, 4]
[9, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8]
[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 7, 9, 1]
[1, 8, 5, 9, 7, 2, 6, 4, 3]
[3, 9, 7, 6, 4, 1, 8, 5, 2]
[4, 2, 6, 3, 8, 5, 9, 1, 7]
[6, 1, 9, 8, 2, 3, 4, 7, 5]
[7, 4, 3, 1, 5, 6, 2, 8, 9]
[8, 5, 2, 4, 9, 7, 1, 3, 6]

But this grid

[[0, 7, 1, 6, 8, 4, 0, 0, 0],
[0, 4, 9, 7, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
[5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
[0, 8, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 4],
[0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 7, 0, 0, 0],
[2, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 9, 0],
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 9],
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 7, 2, 0],
[0, 0, 0, 4, 9, 8, 6, 1, 0]]

it cannot solve. it tries different numbers and doesn't stop :(

Answer 1

firstly, in def explore, i wouldn't have the 'if solved.' this means, when it's not solved, you do the test twice. instead, you can just have a 'return true' after your while loop. then, if it's solved, it'll never enter the while loop and return true.

i also suspect pos = lst.index(sth) might be a bit slow. it might be better to write a function that just returns the pos of the shortest list. probably not a large difference, if it's doing reference comparisons. i'm also surprised choice() isn't blowing up testing the len() on an int. this helper function might make that code a bit cleaner:

def find_min_list(grid):
    minRow = 0
    minCol = 0
    minLength = 10

    for i in range(10):
        for j in range(10):
            if type(grid[i][j]) is list and len(grid[i][j]) < minLength:
                minLength = len(grid[i][j])
                minRow = i
                minCol = j

    return minRow, minCol

it's untested but should do the trick

it's hard to diagnose what's going wrong just looking at your code right now. what i'd suggest is try outputing some info to a text file. that way you can see if your explore is hitting an infinite loop (it might be choosing the same min set multiple times), or your solver is just taking an insanely long time to finish. if it's the latter, it's hard to identify there even is a problem without output. Another option is to have your explore function print out a 'depth,' so you can see if it's either going very deep, or constantly getting stuck at depth 1.

EDIT: I suspect the big issue is your explore is VERY expensive. right now it naively tries every combination of constraints on all unsolved portions of the list. one optimization would be to preform 'constraints' everytime you try a number. that would, hopefully, make your explore not have to go as deep, because it would start removing a lot of potential lists.