A Rust library for solving and visualizing various types of puzzles, including Sudoku, Nonograms (Picross), and Mazes.
- Solves 9x9 Sudoku puzzles using the Dancing Links algorithm
- Supports parsing puzzles from string format
- Generates visual representations of puzzles and solutions
- Handles easy, medium, and hard difficulty levels
- Solves Nonogram puzzles using a combination of constraint propagation and backtracking
- Supports custom puzzle dimensions
- Parses rules from string format
- Generates visual representations with rule display
- Creates mazes using the Recursive Backtrack algorithm
- Generates solution paths from start to finish
- Supports custom maze dimensions
- Visualizes mazes and their solutions
Add this to your Cargo.toml:
[dependencies]
puzzle-utils = "0.3.0"use puzzle_utils::{parse_sudoku, solve_sudoku, print_sudoku, image_to_png_bytes};
// Parse a Sudoku puzzle from string (0 represents empty cells)
let puzzle_str = "415830090003009104002150006900783000200000381500012400004900063380500040009307500";
let puzzle = parse_sudoku(puzzle_str)?;
// Solve the puzzle
let solution = solve_sudoku(&puzzle)?;
// Generate visual representation
let image = print_sudoku(&solution)?;
let png_bytes = image_to_png_bytes(&image)?;use puzzle_utils::{parse_nonogram_rules, solve_nonogram, print_nonogram, print_nonogram_solution};
// Parse column and row rules
let col_rules = "1,1;2;1,1;2;1,1";
let row_rules = "1,1;2;1,1;2;1,1";
let cols = parse_nonogram_rules(col_rules, 5)?;
let rows = parse_nonogram_rules(row_rules, 5)?;
// Solve the puzzle
let solution = solve_nonogram(&cols, &rows)?;
// Generate visual representation
let image = print_nonogram(5, 5, &cols, &rows)?;
let solution_image = print_nonogram_solution(5, 5, image, &solution)?;use puzzle_utils::{create_maze, print_maze, print_maze_solution, MazeAlgorithm};
// Create a maze
let (maze_grid, solution_path) = create_maze(10, 10, MazeAlgorithm::RecursiveBacktrack);
// Generate visual representation
let maze_image = print_maze(10, 10, &maze_grid)?;
let solution_image = print_maze_solution(maze_image, &solution_path)?;The Sudoku solver uses the Dancing Links algorithm, an efficient implementation of Algorithm X for solving exact cover problems. This implementation is based on the paper:
Knuth, D. E. (2000). Dancing Links. Millenial Perspectives in Computer Science, 187-214.
Citation: https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0011047
The maze generator uses the Recursive Backtrack algorithm to create perfect mazes with exactly one solution path.
The Nonogram solver combines constraint propagation with backtracking to efficiently solve puzzles by eliminating impossible configurations.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.