clues. (This eliminates the row and column that are entirely black.) This is purely an issue of image and does not affect either the solution nor the logic required for solving. In discussing Kakuro puzzles and tactics, the typical shorthand for referring to an entry is "(clue, in numerals)-in-(number of cells in entry, spelled out)", such as "16-in-two" and "25-in-five". The exception is what would otherwise be called the "45-in-nine"—simply "45" is used, since the "-in-nine" is mathematically implied (nine cells is the longest possible entry, and since it cannot duplicate a digit it must consist of all the digits from 1 to 9 once). Curiously, both "43-in-eight" and "44-in-eight" are still frequently called as such, despite the "-in-eight" suffix being equally implied. Solving techniques Combinatoric techniques Although brute-force guessing is possible, a more efficient approach is the understanding of the various combinatorial forms that entries can take for various pairings of clues and entry lengths. The solution space can be reduced by resolving allowable intersections of horizontal and vertical sums, or by considering necessary or missing values. Those entries with sufficiently large or small clues for their length will have fewer possible combinations to consider, and by comparing them with entries that cross them, the proper permutation—or part of it—can be derived. The simplest example is where a 3-in-two crosses a 4-in-two: the 3-in-two must consist of "1" and "2" in some order; the 4-in-two (since "2" cannot be duplicated) must consist of "1" and "3" in some order. Therefore, their intersection must be "1", the only digit they have in common. When solving longer sums there are additional ways to find clues to locating the correct digits. One such method would be to note where a few squares together share possible values thereby eliminating the possibility that other squares in that sum could have those values. For instance, if two 4-in-two clues cross with a longer sum, then the 1 and 3 in the solution must be in those two squares and those digits cannot be used elsewhere in that sum. When solving sums that have a limited number of solution sets then that can lead to useful clues. For instance, a 30-in-seven sum only has two solution sets: {1,2,3,4,5,6,9} and {1,2,3,4,5,7,8}. If one of the squares in that sum can only take on the values of {8,9} (if the crossing clue is a 17-in-two sum, for example)