Puzzle Collections

Puzzles Collections are simple text files. They hold a sudoku puzzle on a single line are a long string of digits. These digits fill in the puzzle as if were a book (left-to-right, top-to-bottom). These collections of puzzles are available in many places where sudoku is played online. Sudoku Koubou can also generate these files through its generator.

"Raw" puzzles collections have no annotation within the file. Sudoku Koubou can process these collection files and add comments to each puzzle, including a name, a rating and some statistics. In this way, you can process a raw puzzle collection file from anothe source and discover what rating Sudoku Koubou gives the contents.

After processing a raw puzzle collection, or after generating one from within Sudoku Koubou, you can browse this collection via the collection browser:

To open a collection, click on the button with the ellipses (...) in the top right. It will list files that could hold puzzles. For text files that have a mix of puzzles and other text, Sudoku Koubou will ignore lines it cannot understand.

To see the start of a given puzzle, click on the line in the list. It will display the puzzle start on the right. The window can be resized to help you view the puzzle more clearly, if you wish.

To sort puzzles by any of the displayed columns, click on the column header. To choose to open a single puzzle, double-click the line - or hit the OK button. When returning to the puzzle collection browser, it will remember the file you had been browsing until you choose another.

The statistics of each puzzle, displayed in the "Comments" column, are gathered when Sudoku Koubou rate the puzzle collection. The numbers are approximate times the various logic modules were successful in helping solve the puzzle. For example, each time "Range Checking" is used and results in reducing the puzzle's options to that a entry can be confidently made, it's weight is increased. The numbers are only rough useages because of the skewing that occurs when puzzles require backing up. You can use these numbers to see the strategies that were most productive in solving a puzzle. You will find two puzzles with close ratings may require dramatically different strategies, which this comment attempts to make apparent.

You will find two puzzles with close ratings may require dramatically different strategies, which this comment attempts to make apparent. The comments come from a large embedded dictionary Sudoku Koubou has within it, and it reserves certain words for certain ratings and qualities of puzzles.