Sudoku, Linear Optimization, and the Ten Cent Diet

[PaulHoule]

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2014/09/sudoku-linear-optimization-and-ten-cent.html

[yzzxy]

This struck me as almost a perfect example for good content on a company blog (outside of the required press-release style posts). Ties into their software, light-hearted, polished and well put together.

[jamii]

One interesting use for Linear Optimization is to do constraint-based UI layout - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary_%28software%29 . I wonder how Glop would compare to Cassowary?

EDIT Unfortunately the documentation for the Google OR suite is pretty sparse.

[sjtrny]

If anyone is interested in exactly how to solve Sudoku via integer programming see the following: http://www.mathworks.com.au/help/optim/ug/solve-sudoku-puzzl...

It's a very elegant solution.

[_qc3o → sjtrny]

Mixed-integer and 0-1 integer programming problems are NP-complete in the general case. You might as well use the backtracking approach which in my opinion is much more elegant.

[etrain → sjtrny]

One thing often missing from these types of solutions (this one included) is that it's extremely easy to generalize them beyond the 9x9 case.

[samirmenon]

I actually just wrote an add-on for Google Sheets (It allows you to run neural networks in a spreadsheet). While I resented being forced to use Google's Apps Script Editor, I was impressed with the quality of the documentation and reference materials. They've done a pretty good job.