http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=196135


in reply to Trying to solve N-Queens

use strict; use Data::Dumper; my $SIZE = shift || 4; my @BOARD = map {[(1) x $SIZE]} (1..$SIZE); my @SOLUTION; # i know that the second argument seems unecessary, # but this will used to allow different threads to # tackle different starting rows ... scan(0,0,[@BOARD],[]); print Dumper \@SOLUTION; sub scan { my ($col,$start_row,$board,$possible) = @_; my $copy = [map[@$_],@$board]; # no more columns? if ($col == $SIZE) { # found our solution! push @SOLUTION,[@$possible]; return; } # find first available row for my $row ($start_row..$SIZE-1) { if($board->[$row]->[$col]) { push @$possible,$row; print "available row: $row in col $col: (@$possible)\n"; mark_attacks($row,$col,$board); print_matrix($board); scan($col+1,0,[@$board],$possible); # i thought that this copy should not even be necessary @{$board} = map[@$_],@$copy; pop @$possible; } } return; } sub mark_attacks { my ($r,$c,$array) = @_; $array->[$r]->[$c] = 'Q'; # mark horizontal $array->[$r]->[$_] = 0 for ($c+1..$SIZE-1); # this line will produce 1 solution for n=4 or 5 #$array->[$r] = [ map {0} @{$array->[$r]} ]; # mark r-c diagonal $array->[--$r]->[++$c] = 0 while ($r > 0) && ($c < $SIZE-1); # mark r+c diagonal ($r,$c) = @_; $array->[++$r]->[++$c] = 0 while ($r < $SIZE-1) && ($c < $SIZE-1); } sub print_matrix { print join('',@$_),"\n" for @{+shift} }