Sudoku Verification, Turning Pseudo-Code into real code!

[DannyB13]

Hi, and thanks for possible help in advance.
Here's my dilemma. I've been making a sudoku generator, and I'm now stuck on one part. I must be able to take a 'solution' and verify that it is correct, by checking a few things.
1. There are enough numbers, no 'periods' which signify '0' or 'no input'.
2. That there are no duplicate numbers in any row, column, or 3x3 box.

I have been thinking of ways to do this and I've come up with 2 things. Firstly is this bit of code. When I put i in, however, it won't work.

//requires that you only allow valid input of characters 1-n where n is the size of the board

private boolean validateSudoku(int[][] b)
{ 
for (int i = 0; i < b.length; i++) {
String row = "";
String col = "";
for (int j = 0; j < b[i].length; j++) {
if(!row.contains(b[i][j] + ""))
row +=b[i][j] + "";
if(!col.contains(b[j][i] + ""))
row += b[j][i] + ""; 
if(row.length() + col.length() != b.length + b[0].length)
return false;
}
} 
return true; 
}

The Second is this pseudo code I've created, and although sure this method is better, I can't seem to figure out how to make this happen.

take an array with 9 numbers; this represents a row, or a column, or a 3x3 square, whatever, call this listArray

if listArray is not exactly 9 elements long, it's invalid, so return false

create blank array, call this testArray

for each number in listArray:
if testArray contains this number:
listArray is invalid
return false
else:
add this number to testArray

return true

Oh here's my full code I've done so far by the way.

public class Sudoku {
    private int N = 3; //sets 'N'. This can be changed to make bigger/smaller sudoku
    private int[][]board; // creates the board.
    private int square = N*N;
 
    public static void main (String []Args){
        Sudoku s1 = new Sudoku();
        s1.show();
        s1.isSolution();
    }
 
    public Sudoku(){ //constructor
        board = new int [square][square]; //Sets the overall size of the board.
        for (int i=0; i< square; ++i){
            for(int j=0; j< square; ++j){
                board [i][j]=0; // Goes through all columns and rows, sets it to 0
            }
        }
    }
 
    public    int getSquare(int i, int j){ // Gets the value of board[i][j] 
 
        if(i >=0 && i< square && j>=0 && j<square)
            return board[i][j];
        else
            return 0;
 
    }
 
    public void setSquare(int i, int j, int val){// Sets board[i][j] = val.
        board [i][j] = val;
 
    }
 
    public void show() {
        for (int i=0; i< square; ++i){
            if (i%3 == 0 && i > 0)
                System.out.println("------+------+------");
            for(int j=0; j< square; ++j){
                if (board [i][j] == 0)
                    System.out.print(" .");
                else 
                    System.out.print(" " + board [i][j]);
                if ((j+1)%3 == 0 && j < square -1)    
                    System.out.print("|");
            }
            System.out.println();
        }
    }
 
    public boolean isSolution(){
 
 
    }
}

I'm getting kinda frustrated and a point in the right direction or even some help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and help.

[DannyB13]

I have another bit to add in. Another part of the assignment is

Write a method

void fill(String[] lines);
in the Sudoku class that takes an array of N*N Strings. Each string has N*N elements, each of which is either a digit or period. Periods indicate empty squares.

So far I have
    public void fill(String[] lines){
        for(int x=0; x< square; x++){
            lines[x] = 
        }

square being N*N, in this case 9.
I want this code to pick up only periods and digits. None of the border of +,-,| around it. Is there a type of code to do that? Forgive me if you can't tell I'm pretty darn rusty here.

[JosAH]

Check the Java insights section, it has a three part article on Sudoku, including the reading and initializing, solving and printing the darn thing.

kind regards,

Jos

[DannyB13]

My question has been moved to http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?th...art=0&tstart=0 and is coming along well.