Hello all.

I've written a program to solve sudoku puzzles. I had it working for int, see below.

typedef int element;
typedef element game[GAME];

I changed element into short, and then it exits with a segmentation fault. I then changed element into char and I got an immediate segmentation fault. Does anyone know why this happens? Here's what I think is the critical parts (any help greatly appreciated):

OKplaces* checkfunction ( game const g )
{
   int i, j;
   OKplaces *possibles = (OKplaces *)malloc(sizeof(OKplaces));

   possibles->n = 0;
   for(i=0;i<SQUARE;i+=3)
      for(j=0;j<SQUARE;j+=3)
      {
         int l = 0;
         element *s, *missingnumbers, *emptyplaces, **rows, **cols, *p;
         OKplaces *places = (OKplaces *)malloc(sizeof(OKplaces));

         s = extractsquare(&g[i*SQUARE+j]);
         missingnumbers = extractmissingnumbers(s);
         emptyplaces = extractemptyplaces(s);
         rows = extractrows(g, i);
         cols = extractcols(g, j);
         p = missingnumbers;
         while(*p!=0 && p-missingnumbers<SQUARE)
         {
            l++;
            p++;
         }
         l *= 2;
         p = missingnumbers;
         places->n = 0;
         places->square[0] = i;
         places->square[1] = j;
         while(*p!=0)
         {
            int k;

            places->value = *p;
            int *q = places->coords;

            for(k=0;k<l;k+=2)
            {
               if(!numberisin(rows[emptyplaces[k]], *p) && !numberisin(cols[emptyplaces[k+1]], *p))
               {
                  places->n++;
                  *q++ = emptyplaces[k];
                  *q++ = emptyplaces[k+1];
               }
            }
            if(places->n==1)
               return places;
            else if(possibles->n==0 || places->n<possibles->n)
            {
               int m, N2 = 2*places->n;

               possibles->value = places->value;
               possibles->n = places->n;
               for(m=0; m<N2; m+=2)
               {
                  possibles->coords[m] = places->coords[m];
                  possibles->coords[m+1] = places->coords[m+1];
               }
               possibles->square[0] = places->square[0];
               possibles->square[1] = places->square[1];
            }
            places->n =0;
            p++;
         }
      }
   return possibles;
}

int gamecheck ( game g, OKplaces* (f)(), OKplaces* const cand )
{
   printf("Placing %d at (%d, %d) in %s square.\n", cand->value, cand->coords[0], cand->coords[1], printwhichsquare(cand->square[0], cand->square[1]));
   g[(cand->square[0]+cand->coords[0])*SQUARE+cand->square[1]+cand->coords[1]] = cand->value;
   if(gamefull(g))
      return 1;
   else
   {
      OKplaces *possibles = f(g);

      while(possibles->n)
      {
         int n1 = possibles->n-1;
         OKplaces *position = (OKplaces *)malloc(sizeof(OKplaces));

         position->value = possibles->value;
         position->n = 1;
         position->coords[0] = possibles->coords[2*n1];
         position->coords[1] = possibles->coords[2*n1+1];
         position->square[0] = possibles->square[0];
         position->square[1] = possibles->square[1];
         if(possibles->n>1)
            printf("Multiple possibles: guessing.\n");
         if(gamecheck(g, (*f), position))
            return 1;
         possibles->n--;
      }
   }
   printf("Wrong: deleting %d at (%d, %d) in %s square.\n", cand->value, cand->coords[0], cand->coords[1], printwhichsquare(cand->square[0], cand->square[1]));
   g[(cand->square[0]+cand->coords[0])*SQUARE+cand->square[1]+cand->coords[1]] = 0;
   return 0;
}

int gamesolve ( game g )
{
   OKplaces *first = checkfunction(g), *cand = (OKplaces *)malloc(sizeof(OKplaces));
   int *p = first->coords, *q = cand->coords;

   cand->value = first->value;
   cand->n = 1;
   cand->square[0] = first->square[0];
   cand->square[1] = first->square[1];
   while(first->n)
   {
      *q++ = *p++;
      *q++ = *p++;
      if(gamecheck(g, checkfunction, cand))
         return 1;
      q = cand->coords;
      first->n--;
   }
   return 0;
}

use your compiler's debugger to step through the program and find out whay it crashes. I could make a couple guesses, but that's all it would be -- guesses.

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