<p>Write a program to solve a Sudoku puzzle by filling the empty cells.</p>

<p>A sudoku solution must satisfy <strong>all of the following rules</strong>:</p>

<ol>
	<li>Each of the digits <code>1-9</code> must occur exactly once in each row.</li>
	<li>Each of the digits <code>1-9</code> must occur exactly once in each column.</li>
	<li>Each of the digits <code>1-9</code> must occur exactly once in each of the 9 <code>3x3</code> sub-boxes of the grid.</li>
</ol>

<p>The <code>&#39;.&#39;</code> character indicates empty cells.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong class="example">Example 1:</strong></p>
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Sudoku-by-L2G-20050714.svg/250px-Sudoku-by-L2G-20050714.svg.png" style="height:250px; width:250px" />
<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> board = [[&quot;5&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;],[&quot;6&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;5&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;],[&quot;.&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;.&quot;],[&quot;8&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;3&quot;],[&quot;4&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;1&quot;],[&quot;7&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;6&quot;],[&quot;.&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;.&quot;],[&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;4&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;5&quot;],[&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;.&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;9&quot;]]
<strong>Output:</strong> [[&quot;5&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;4&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;2&quot;],[&quot;6&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;5&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;4&quot;,&quot;8&quot;],[&quot;1&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;4&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;5&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;7&quot;],[&quot;8&quot;,&quot;5&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;4&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;3&quot;],[&quot;4&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;5&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;1&quot;],[&quot;7&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;4&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;5&quot;,&quot;6&quot;],[&quot;9&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;5&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;4&quot;],[&quot;2&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;4&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;9&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;3&quot;,&quot;5&quot;],[&quot;3&quot;,&quot;4&quot;,&quot;5&quot;,&quot;2&quot;,&quot;8&quot;,&quot;6&quot;,&quot;1&quot;,&quot;7&quot;,&quot;9&quot;]]
<strong>Explanation:</strong>&nbsp;The input board is shown above and the only valid solution is shown below:

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Sudoku-by-L2G-20050714_solution.svg/250px-Sudoku-by-L2G-20050714_solution.svg.png" style="height:250px; width:250px" />
</pre>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><code>board.length == 9</code></li>
	<li><code>board[i].length == 9</code></li>
	<li><code>board[i][j]</code> is a digit or <code>&#39;.&#39;</code>.</li>
	<li>It is <strong>guaranteed</strong> that the input board has only one solution.</li>
</ul>

class Solution {
public:
    using Pos = pair<int, int>;
    // fill in each empty cell with possible digits
    // possible digits could be determined by current board
    // i.e. current line, current column and current subbox
    // if all cells are filled, return result and stop traversing
    // since there is only one solution
    // we could find all empty cells inadvance and fill it one by one
    // when reach end of the list, we can return
    void solveSudoku(vector<vector<char>>& board) {
        vector<Pos> emptyCells = getEmptyCells(board);
        solve(board, emptyCells, 0);    // DFS start from the first empty cell
    }

private:
    vector<Pos> getEmptyCells(const vector<vector<char>>& board) {
        vector<Pos> emptyCells;
        for (int i = 0; i < board.size(); ++i) {
            for (int j = 0; j < board[0].size(); ++j) {
                if (board[i][j] == '.')
                    emptyCells.push_back({i, j});
            }
        }
        return emptyCells;
    }

    // return possible char to fill empty cell at pos
    vector<char> getValidChars(const vector<vector<char>>& board, Pos pos) {
        auto [x, y] = pos;
        unordered_set<char> validChars = {'1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'};
        constexpr int n = 9;
        for (int i = 0; i < 9; ++i) {
            if (validChars.contains(board[x][i]))
                validChars.erase(board[x][i]);
            if (validChars.contains(board[i][y]))
                validChars.erase(board[i][y]);
        }

        const int topLeftX = (x / 3) * 3;
        const int topLeftY = (y / 3) * 3;
        for (int i = topLeftX; i < topLeftX + 3; ++i) {
            for (int j = topLeftY; j < topLeftY + 3; ++j) {
                if (validChars.contains(board[i][j]))
                    validChars.erase(board[i][j]);
            }
        }
        return {validChars.begin(), validChars.end()};
    }

    // try solve sudoku, start form first pos of emptyCell
    // return true if the trial succeeds and false o/w
    bool solve(vector<vector<char>>& board, const vector<Pos>& emptyCells, int start) {
        // base case
        if (start == emptyCells.size())     
            return true;
        const Pos currPos = emptyCells[start];
        vector<char> validChars = getValidChars(board, currPos);
        const auto [x, y] = currPos;
        for (char c : validChars) {
            board[x][y] = c;
            if (solve(board, emptyCells, start + 1))
                return true;
            board[x][y] = '.';
        }
        return false;
    }
};
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