TITLE: Transforming a latin square into a sudoku
QUESTION [8 upvotes]: Can any $9\times 9$ - Latin Square be transformed into a sudoku by just exchanging rows and
 columns (it is allowed to mix row- and column-exchanges arbitarily and there is no limit for the number of the exchanges) ?

REPLY [4 votes]: No, this one can't:
$$
L=
\begin{bmatrix} 8 & 9 & 5 & 4 & 7 & 3 & 6 & 2 & 1 \\ 4 & 3 & 2 & 6 & 9 & 8 & 
5 & 1 & 7 \\ 1 & 5 & 3 & 8 & 4 & 2 & 9 & 7 & 6 \\ 3 & 1 & 7 & 9 & 5 & 6 & 4 & 
8 & 2 \\ 6 & 2 & 4 & 5 & 3 & 1 & 7 & 9 & 8 \\ 5 & 7 & 1 & 3 & 2 & 4 & 8 & 6 & 
9 \\ 9 & 6 & 8 & 2 & 1 & 7 & 3 & 4 & 5 \\ 7 & 8 & 9 & 1 & 6 & 5 & 2 & 3 & 
4 \\ 2 & 4 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 1 & 5 & 3 \\ \end{bmatrix}
.
$$
Will Jagy's answer implies that if we generate a random Latin square of order $9$, it will very likely not be equivalent to a sudoku by permuting the rows and columns.  So I generated a random Latin square $L$ (above) of order $9$, with rows/columns/symbols in $\{1,2,\ldots,9\}$.
We can permute the rows and columns in $9!^2$ ways.  However, if we permute e.g. only the first three rows, we preserve sudoku-ness (and non-sudoku-ness).  The same thing if we permute the second three rows (i.e., rows $\{4,5,6\}$), the first three columns, and so on.
Let $$G=\langle (1,2),(1,2,3),(4,5),(4,5,6),(7,8),(7,8,9)\rangle \leq S_9.$$  Then $G$ acts on $S_9$ by composition.  There are $|S_9|/|G|=9!/(3!)^3=1680$ orbits under this action, so it is sufficient to check $(1680)^2=2822400$ row-column permutation pairs to verify that $L$ cannot be transformed into a sudoku by permuting the rows and columns.  I did this on the computer using GAP:
L:=
[ [ 8, 9, 5, 4, 7, 3, 6, 2, 1 ], 
  [ 4, 3, 2, 6, 9, 8, 5, 1, 7 ], 
  [ 1, 5, 3, 8, 4, 2, 9, 7, 6 ], 
  [ 3, 1, 7, 9, 5, 6, 4, 8, 2 ], 
  [ 6, 2, 4, 5, 3, 1, 7, 9, 8 ], 
  [ 5, 7, 1, 3, 2, 4, 8, 6, 9 ], 
  [ 9, 6, 8, 2, 1, 7, 3, 4, 5 ], 
  [ 7, 8, 9, 1, 6, 5, 2, 3, 4 ], 
  [ 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, 5, 3 ] ];

G:=Group((1,2),(1,2,3),(4,5),(4,5,6),(7,8),(7,8,9));;
Orbs:=Orbits(G,SymmetricGroup(9),OnRight);;
Reps:=List(Orbs,O->O[1]);;

PermuteRowsMatrix:=function(L,perm)
  return List([1..Size(L)],i->L[i^Inverse(perm)]);
end;;

PermuteColumnsMatrix:=function(L,perm)
  return List([1..Size(L)],i->List([1..Size(L[1])],j->L[i][j^Inverse(perm)]));
end;;

IsSudoku:=function(M)
  local r,c,i,j,S;
  for r in [1..3] do
    for c in [1..3] do
      S:=[];
      for i in [1..3] do
        for j in [1..3] do
          Append(S,[M[3*(r-1)+i][3*(c-1)+j]]);
        od;
      od;
      if(Set(S)<>[1..9]) then return false; fi;
    od;
  od;
  return true;
end;;

for alpha in Reps do
  for beta in Reps do
    M:=PermuteRowsMatrix(PermuteColumnsMatrix(L,beta),alpha);
    if(IsSudoku(M)) then
      Print("This Latin square can be transformed into the following Sudoku square by row/column permutations:\n",M,"\n");
    fi;
  od;
od;