Sudoku Players' Forum (clone)

I have made some progress with this puzzle, but my techniques now fail me. Suggestions welcome.

341798265527.1..8.986524731.1..675.375..31..663..59178.75.8.31.16....85.8931.56..

You'll kick yourself on this one. Only a pointing pair of 2's in r45c8 is required to solve r9c8 and the puzzle.

Code: Select all

*--------------------------------------*
| 3  4 1    | 7   9  8  | 2   6   5    |
| 5  2 7    | 36  1  36 | 49  8   49   |
| 9  8 6    | 5   2  4  | 7   3   1    |
|-----------+-----------+--------------|
| 24 1 2489 | 248 6  7  | 5  *249 3    |
| 7  5 2489 | 248 3  1  | 49 *249 6    |
| 6  3 24   | 24  5  9  | 1   7   8    |
|-----------+-----------+--------------|
| 24 7 5    | 69  8  26 | 3   1   249  |
| 1  6 24   | 39  47 23 | 8   5   2479 |
| 8  9 3    | 1   47 5  | 6   4-2 247  |
*--------------------------------------*

Leren

Thank you Leren. That certainly did the trick. The puzzle resolved very quickly after that.

I think you pointed out the same process to me last year. I still have not found a way of automating it within Excel.