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Sudoku in Excel
Have you ever thought how helpful it would be to have a program to
help you get organised when you are tackling a Sudoku? Well, the
spreadsheet that we have prepared may be just what you are looking for.
The spreadsheet doesn't take all decisions for you - but it does give
advice and handles quite a lot of the pencilling process for you. So
long as your computer can run an Excel spreadsheet, you can download the
spreadsheet by clicking below:
There heaps of places on the web where you
can find Sudokus to enjoy. We use
the UK
Times site on a regular basis, but this might not be the place to
start, as the puzzles are normally in the Hard to Fiendish categories!
How does the spreadsheet work?
Let's look at an example. Suppose that the
Sudoku puzzle was as shown on the left.
If you look at the Row1-Col8 cell, you can see that the numbers 2, 7,
8, and 9 are in the same sub-square, the numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 are in
the same row/column, which only leaves 1 as the number that can fill
this cell. So the Suggestions square does this pencilling for you and
suggests a 1 in Row1 - Col8 in bright green. On the other hand, move to
Row4 - Col2 and you'll see that 1, 2, and 3 are in the same sub-square
and that 4, 5, 6 and 7 are in the same row/column. This leaves only 8 or
9 as possibles for this cell. This time the Suggestion is made in light
green - a bit less sure, but advice well-worth having!
Here's another example, but this time there are no definite
suggestions:
In this case, you might look at the bottom-left sub-square and decide
to see what happens if you use a 3 in Row7 - Col2. we suggest that
you make a copy of the Solution ... so far before entering the 3 so that
you can come back if that choice doesn't work out and try a 4 in the
same position.
Comments
We'd be very interested in any comments you
have on the spreadsheet - just click here
to email us your reactions. Also, if you're a fan of the Sudoku idea,
why not have a look at the Diamond Sudoku that we set for students in a
recent maths competition. The new format uses fewer numbers, but the
puzzle is just as challenging!
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