My sudoku solver solves the puzzles but contains some zeros

Question

If someone can test this and find the problem that would be very helpful. The algorithm solves the puzzles but has some zeros in the solution which is not valid sudoku. I think the problem is if the number is possible in that cell then it assumes its correct.

export const initiate = (board) => {
    const updatedBoard = board.map((i) =>
        i.map((j) => (j === 0 ? (j = null) : j))
    );

    const validInput = validBoard(updatedBoard);
    if (!validInput) {
        return false;
    }

    return solve(updatedBoard);
};

const solve = (board) => {
    if (isSolved(board)) {
        return board;
    }

    const possibilities = findPossibilities(board);
    const validBoards = keepValid(possibilities);
    return searchForSolution(validBoards);
};

const searchForSolution = (boards) => {
    if (boards.length < 1) {
        return false;
    }

    const first = boards.shift();
    const tryPath = solve(first);
    if (tryPath) {
        return tryPath;
    }
    return searchForSolution(boards);
};

const isSolved = (board) => {
    for (let i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
        for (let j = 0; j < 9; j++) {
            if (board[i][j] === null) {
                return false;
            }
        }
    }
    return true;
};

const findPossibilities = (board) => {
    let res = [];
    const firstEmptySqr = findEmptySqr(board);
    if (firstEmptySqr !== undefined) {
        const y = firstEmptySqr[0];
        const x = firstEmptySqr[1];
        for (let i = 0; i <= 9; i++) {
            const newBoard = [...board];
            const row = [...newBoard[y]];
            row[x] = i;
            newBoard[y] = row;
            res.push(newBoard);
        }
    }

    return res;
};

const findEmptySqr = (board) => {
    for (let i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
        for (let j = 0; j < 9; j++) {
            if (board[i][j] === null) {
                return [i, j];
            }
        }
    }
};

const keepValid = (boards) => {
    let res = [];
    for (let i = 0; i < boards.length; i++) {
        if (validBoard(boards[i])) {
            res.push(boards[i]);
        }
    }
    return res;
};

const validBoard = (board) => {
    return rowsValid(board) && columnsValid(board) && boxesValid(board);
};

function rowsValid(board) {
    for (let i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
        let cur = [];
        for (let j = 0; j < 9; j++) {
            if (cur.includes(board[i][j])) {
                return false;
            } else if (board[i][j] !== null) {
                cur.push(board[i][j]);
            }
        }
    }
    return true;
}

function columnsValid(board) {
    for (let i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
        let cur = [];
        for (let j = 0; j < 9; j++) {
            if (cur.includes(board[j][i])) {
                return false;
            } else if (board[j][i] !== null) {
                cur.push(board[j][i]);
            }
        }
    }
    return true;
}

function boxesValid(board) {
    const boxCoordinates = [
        [0, 0],
        [0, 1],
        [0, 2],
        [1, 0],
        [1, 1],
        [1, 2],
        [2, 0],
        [2, 1],
        [2, 2],
    ];

    for (let y = 0; y < 9; y += 3) {
        for (let x = 0; x < 9; x += 3) {
            let cur = [];
            for (let i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
                let coordinates = [...boxCoordinates[i]];
                coordinates[0] += y;
                coordinates[1] += x;
                if (cur.includes(board[coordinates[0]][coordinates[1]])) {
                    return false;
                } else if (board[coordinates[0]][coordinates[1]] !== null) {
                    cur.push(board[coordinates[0]][coordinates[1]]);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return true;
}

I was expecting this to solve the sudoku puzzle without returning zeros because in sudoku there are no zeros

Answer 1

In findPossibilities you have a bug in the loop.

In the first iteration 0 is assigned to row[x], which is not what you want to happen. So change this line:

    for (let i = 0; i <= 9; i++) {

to:

    for (let i = 1; i <= 9; i++) {