Lessons from Modeling Sudoku in Excel

Howard J. Weiss - hweiss@temple.edu
Department of Management Science/Operations Management, Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
Rasmus A. Rasmussen - Rasmus.Rasmussen@hiMolde.no
Molde University College, 6402 Molde, Norway

Abstract

In a previous paper, Chlond (2005) presented the formulation of Sudoku as an integer program. Chlond claims that a spreadsheet formulation is not straightforward but we present a simple Excel formulation. In light of the current use of Excel in the classroom it can be highly instructive to formulate the problem using Excel. In addition, the formulation of this relatively simple model enables instructors to introduce students to the capability of programming Solver using VBA. In a follow-on paper (Rasmussen and Weiss 2007), we demonstrate advanced lessons that can be learned from using Premium Solver's powerful features to model Sudoku.

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10.1287/ited.7.2.178

Citation Information
Rasmussen, R. A. Weiss, H. J. 2006. Lessons from Modeling Sudoku in Excel. INFORMS Trans. Ed. 7(2) 178-184. Available online at http://ite.pubs.informs.org/.

DOI: 10.1287/ited.7.2.178