In a previous paper, Chlond (2005) presented the formulation of
Sudoku as an integer program. Chlond claims that a spreadsheet
formulation is not straightforward but we present a simple Excel
formulation. In light of the current use of Excel in the
classroom it can be highly instructive to formulate the problem
using Excel. In addition, the formulation of this relatively
simple model enables instructors to introduce students to the
capability of programming Solver using VBA. In a follow-on paper
(Rasmussen and Weiss, 2007), we demonstrate advanced lessons
that can be learned from using Premium Solver's powerful
features to model Sudoku.
