Sudoku Players' Forum (clone)

Suppose you take a Latin square and blow it up so that there are many more rows and columns than different numbers in the puzzle but every row and column still has the property of having one of each number. This results in a lot of spaces that are not cells. What is this puzzle called?

Here is one I created:

Code: Select all

0.0.........04..
.....4.0..02....
.0...04....0....
..0.0....1...0..
...0...0....0.0.
......0...0...00
2..00...0.......
..0.0..0...0....
.0...0..00......
......0.....0.01
0.2.......3..0..
....0....00....0
.0...10.0.......
...4.......0.0.2
1..0....20......
.3.....0....0.4.

Every row and column must contain the digits 1-4 once and once only.
Empty cells are indicated with 0's, blank spaces with dots.

999_Springs wrote:What is this puzzle called?

Perhaps "the inhuman puzzle"?

I went to all the troubles to list out all the candidates:



Only able to fill out 3 "0" cells...

So what's the "secret easy technique that idiots can't see" to solve it?

Edit: Thanks to Thomas (motris), I see where the idiot (referring to myself) didn't see - that "blank spaces" are actually "shaded blocks" where you don't need to fill anything on them...

I'm wondering if you are reading the rules right udosuk. The only relevant candidates are in the grey 0 cells you have, not all the white ones which are spaces. You can attack the second row from the bottom, the first column, a couple other places, to put in digits.

This puzzle is a bit in behavior like the "shaded" sudoku I proposed when I first made a Paint By Sudoku variant. That essentially used 9 of every 16 cells in a 16x16 for the numbers 1 through 9, so each row, column, and partial box had 1-9. Of course, by only using 1-4, it never has nonet structure like my description (sans example) did.

Thank you very much Thomas!

You're dead right that I didn't read the "rules" right. But I think the puzzle could have been set up in a much less confusing way if it hadn't called the dots "blank spaces" but something like "shaded blocks" and used the # symbol instead, then used the dots for the "empty cells" (instead of 0) like we normally do for Sudoku puzzles:

Code: Select all

.#.#########.4##
#####4#.##.2####
#.###.4####.####
##.#.####1###.##
###.###.####.#.#
######.###.###..
2##..###.#######
##.#.##.###.####
#.###.##..######
######.#####.#.1
.#2#######3##.##
####.####..####.
#.###1.#.#######
###4#######.#.#2
1##.####2.######
#3#####.####.#4#

But then again I'm not surprised if I'm the only entity in this universe misinterpreting the representation...

Thomas, thanks again for relieving the pain of one bitterly frustrated soul! You thoroughly deserve your world title!

This puzzle variant is like a odd/even sudoku where only the even numbers must be found. You could add fields with another colour where the numbers 5, 6, 7, 8 are to find ...

Pyrrhon

udosuk wrote:.... I think the puzzle could have been set up in a much less confusing way ....

Yes, it's a little hard to tell, from the original description, the difference between "empty cells" and "blank spaces". Which are supposed to be filled in, and which left blank (or "empty"?

Bill Smythe