A cool algorithm to check a Sudoku field?

Question

Does anyone know a simple algorithm to check if a Sudoku-Configuration is valid? The simplest algorithm I came up with is (for a board of size n) in Pseudocode

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Answer 1

Let's say int sudoku[0..8,0..8] is the sudoku field.

bool CheckSudoku(int[,] sudoku)
{
    int flag = 0;

// Check rows
for(int row = 0; row < 9; row++)
{
    flag = 0;
    for (int col = 0; col < 9; col++)
    {
        // edited : check range step (see comments)
        if ((sudoku[row, col] < 1)||(sudoku[row, col] > 9)) 
        {
            return false;
        }

        // if n-th bit is set.. but you can use a bool array for readability
        if ((flag & (1 << sudoku[row, col])) != 0) 
        {
            return false;
        }

        // set the n-th bit
        flag |= (1 << sudoku[row, col]); 
    }
}

// Check columns
for(int col= 0; col < 9; col++)
{
    flag = 0;
    for (int row = 0; row < 9; row++)
    {
        if ((flag & (1 << sudoku[row, col])) != 0)
        {
            return false;
        }
        flag |= (1 << sudoku[row, col]);
    }
}

// Check 3x3 boxes
for(int box= 0; box < 9; box++)
{
    flag = 0;
    for (int ofs = 0; ofs < 9; ofs++)
    {
        int col = (box % 3) * 3;
        int row = ((int)(box / 3)) * 3;

        if ((flag & (1 << sudoku[row, col])) != 0)
        {
            return false;
        }
        flag |= (1 << sudoku[row, col]);
    }
}
return true;

}