While learning the well-known N Queens puzzle, I came across this Simple and straightforward implementation in C:
#include<stdio.h>
#include<math.h>
int board[20],count;
int main()
{
int n,i,j;
void queen(int row,int n);
printf(" - N Queens Problem Using Backtracking -");
printf("\n\nEnter number of Queens:");
scanf("%d",&n);
queen(1,n);
return 0;
}
void print(int n)
{
int i,j;
printf("\n\nSolution %d:\n\n",++count);
for(i=1;i<=n;++i)
printf("\t%d",i);
for(i=1;i<=n;++i)
{
printf("\n\n%d",i);
for(j=1;j<=n;++j)
{
if(board[i]==j)
printf("\tQ");
else
printf("\t-");
}
}
}
int place(int row,int column)
{
int i;
for(i=1;i<=row-1;++i)
{
if(board[i]==column)
return 0;
else
if(abs(board[i]-column)==abs(i-row))
return 0;
}
return 1;
}
void queen(int row,int n)
{
int column;
for(column=1;column<=n;++column)
{
if(place(row,column))
{
board[row]=column;
if(row==n)
print(n);
else
queen(row+1,n);
}
}
}
However, like most of them, it seems to me that I do not see backtracking . What am I missing?
In my opinion, the function queen()should have a check after the loop forto make sure that the search has been exhausted without success for this particular line / queen, and if so, then the return path, just calling itself line-1. Is this assumption correct?
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