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This is a Sudoku Puzzle Generator written in Python, supporting the generation of Sudoku puzzles of varying difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard). The generator allows for customizable clue counts, optional puzzle symmetry, and the creation of professional-grade Sudoku puzzles. It can also generate PDFs of the puzzles and their solutions. The generator leverages multiprocessing to use all available CPU cores, making the puzzle generation process faster.

Features

• Customizable Difficulty: Generate puzzles with easy, medium, or hard difficulty levels.
• Custom Clue Count: Specify the number of clues for each puzzle (e.g., hard:1:17 generates a hard puzzle with exactly 17 clues).
• Optional Symmetry: Use the --use-symmetry flag to generate puzzles with symmetrical clue placement for a professional-grade look.
• Solution Generation: Generate a separate PDF with solutions for the puzzles.
• Parallel Puzzle Generation: Uses multiprocessing to generate puzzles in parallel, utilizing all available CPU cores for faster generation.
• PDF Output: Outputs generated puzzles and solutions as PDFs.

Installation

To use this project, make sure you have Python 3.x installed and the necessary dependencies:

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/alicommit-malp/sudoku
   cd sudoku

1. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Dependencies

• numpy: Used for managing the Sudoku grid.
• fpdf: For generating PDFs of the puzzles and solutions.
• argparse: For parsing command-line arguments.
• multiprocessing: To parallelize puzzle generation.

Usage

You can run the Sudoku generator from the command line using the python command. Below are examples of different ways to run the generator.

Basic Example

Generate 10 easy puzzles with 40 clues and 5 medium puzzles with 35 clues, without symmetry:

python sudoku.py -config easy:10:40 -config medium:5:35 -output sudoku_puzzles.pdf

Generating Hard Puzzles with Exactly 17 Clues

Generate 5 hard puzzles with exactly 17 clues, using symmetry and advanced difficulty checking, along with solutions:

python sudoku.py -config hard:5:17 -output sudoku_puzzles.pdf --use-symmetry --gen-answers

Command Line Arguments

• -config: Specify the difficulty level and the number of puzzles to generate in the format difficulty:count:clues. You can provide multiple configurations.

  • Example: -config easy:10:40 generates 10 easy puzzles with 40 clues each.
  • You can also omit the clue count, and a default will be used based on the difficulty.

• -output: Specify the name of the output PDF file (e.g., sudoku_puzzles.pdf).

• --gen-answers: If this flag is provided, a second PDF with the solutions will be generated.

• --use-symmetry: If this flag is provided, the puzzles will be generated with symmetrical clue placement for a professional-grade appearance.

Default Clue Counts

If you do not provide a clue count for a puzzle, the following default values will be used based on difficulty:

• easy: 40 clues
• medium: 35 clues
• hard: 30 clues

Examples

Generate 5 Hard Puzzles with 17 Clues Each:

python sudoku.py -config hard:5:17 -output hard_puzzles.pdf --gen-answers

This will generate 5 hard puzzles with exactly 17 clues each, and the solutions will be saved in hard_puzzles_answers.pdf.

Generate Mixed Difficulty Puzzles:

python sudoku.py -config easy:10:40 -config medium:5:35 -config hard:3:30 -output mixed_puzzles.pdf

This will generate:

• 10 easy puzzles with 40 clues each.
• 5 medium puzzles with 35 clues each.
• 3 hard puzzles with 30 clues each.

Enable Symmetry:

To enable symmetrical clue placement in the puzzles, use the --use-symmetry flag:

python sudoku.py -config hard:5:17 -output symmetrical_hard_puzzles.pdf --use-symmetry

Generate Puzzles in Parallel:

The generator automatically detects the number of CPU cores available and parallelizes the puzzle generation process. No additional flags are needed for multiprocessing.

Github Page

Happy coding :)