N-Queens

The n-queens puzzle is the problem of placing n queens on an n×n chessboard such that no two queens attack each other.

Given an integer n, return all distinct solutions to the n-queens puzzle.

Each solution contains a distinct board configuration of the n-queens' placement, where 'Q' and '.' both indicate a queen and an empty space respectively.

For example,
There exist two distinct solutions to the 4-queens puzzle:

[
 [".Q..",  // Solution 1
  "...Q",
  "Q...",
  "..Q."],

 ["..Q.",  // Solution 2
  "Q...",
  "...Q",
  ".Q.."]
]

思路：经典的backtracking，注意board的init和最后的string的构成，最主要的还是check row，col，和diagonal，对角线也要check。注意每行i，我都要试一下，然后对于每一列，我放完一个Q之后，move到下一列，最后check diagonal的时候，四个对角线坐标分别是：(x-i, y-i) (x-i, y+i) (x+i, y-i) (x+i, y+i), 只需判断x-i >=0  x+i<n的情况；

class Solution {
    public List<List<String>> solveNQueens(int n) {
        List<List<String>> lists = new ArrayList<List<String>>();
        char[][] board = new char[n][n];
        for(int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            for(int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
                board[i][j] = '.';
            }
        }
        dfs(board, lists, 0);
        return lists;
    }
    
    private void dfs(char[][] board, List<List<String>> lists, int column) {
        if(column == board.length) {
            buildRes(lists, board);
            return;
        }
        for(int i = 0; i < board.length; i++) {
            if(isvalid(board, i, column)) {
                board[i][column] = 'Q';
                dfs(board, lists, column + 1);
                board[i][column] = '.';
            }
        }
    }
    
    private void buildRes(List<List<String>> lists, char[][] board) {
        List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        for(int i = 0; i < board.length; i++) {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            for(int j = 0; j < board.length; j++) {
                sb.append(board[i][j]);
            }
            list.add(sb.toString());
        }
        lists.add(list);
    }
    
    private boolean isvalid(char[][] board, int x, int y) {
        int n = board.length;
        // check row;
        for(int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
            if(j != y && board[x][j] == 'Q') {
                return false;
            }
        }
        
        // check col;
        for(int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            if(i != x && board[i][y] == 'Q') {
                return false;
            }
        }
        
        // check diagonal;
        for(int k = 0; k < n; k++) {
            if((0 <= x - k && 0 <= y - k && board[x - k][y - k] == 'Q')
               || (x + k < n && 0 <= y - k && board[x + k][y - k] == 'Q')
               || (0 <= x - k &&  y + k < n && board[x - k][y + k] == 'Q')
               || (x + k < n && y + k < n && board[x + k][y + k] == 'Q')) {
                return false;
            }
        }
        return true;
    }
}