Why a Sudoku-solving program looks smart: Recursion, backtracking, and the idea of 'trying from the most likely failure points'

I was thinking about a program to solve Sudoku.You fill a 9x9 grid with numbers from 1 to 9. The same number must not be repeated in any row, column, or 3x3 block.When humans solve Sudoku, they look ...

Just Splitting Mahjong Tiles Leads to a Massive Flowchart—The Invention of Recursive Functions

When studying programming, you notice something strange.Processes that are extremely complex for humans to think through can ...
InfoWorld

Diagnosing and Resolving StackOverflowError

A recent JavaWorld Community forum message (Stack Overflow after instantiating new object) reminded me that the basics of the StackOverflowError are not always ...
TechRepublic

Using recursion in stored procedures

The basic concept of recursion is straightforward: a given chunk of code calls itself until some boundary condition is reached. Arthur Fuller demonstrates how to use recursion in T-SQL. TechRepublic’s ...