Sudoku Cheater Fail

My first attempt to create a sudoku solver was a complete fail. Having a program go through the trial and error of billions of number combinations 'til the program finds the number combination that satisfies the conditions of a solved sudoku board is a bad way to go about coding a sudoku solver unless you're using a super computer maybe (I don't know). I thought i could apply the same function that I used for a simpler 3 by 3 sudoku 'board' to the standard 9 by 9 sudoku board but the difference in magnitude between the combinations of a 3 by 3 and the magnitude of combinations of a 9 by 9 are astronomical. I don't know when I'll try to make a sudoku solver again. I'm supposed to be looking for existing code for a sudoku solver in whatever other language and translate the same logic used in another language into C++ or find the code for a sudoku solver written in C++ but I'm lazy.