Pattern-Based Constraint Satisfaction and Logic Puzzles (Second Edition)

Pattern-Based Constraint Satisfaction and Logic Puzzles (Second Edition) develops a pure logic pattern-based perspective of solving the finite Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) with emphasis on finding the simplest solution. Different ways of reasoning with the constraints are formalised by various families of resolution rules each of them carrying its own notion of simplicity. A large part of the book illustrates the power of the approach by applying it to various popular logic puzzles. It provides a unified view of how to model and solve them even though they involve very different types of constraints: obvious symmetric ones in Sudoku non-symmetric but transitive ones in Futoshiki topological and geometric ones in Map colouring Numbrix and Hidato non-binary arithmetic ones in Kakuro and both non-binary and non-local ones in Slitherlink. It also shows that the most familiar techniques for these puzzles can be understood as mere application-specific presentations of the general rules.