# How can Lagrange Multipliers and Penalty Method be applied to optimize algorithms?

I have a programming assignment which I was told that is solvable with some DP algorithm. The question is a variant of LIS problem where at most $$k$$ exceptions (restarts) are allowed.

But I know that there is a better solution. My professor mentioned Lagrange Multipliers and giving a penalty for each restart. But after googling these terms I wasn't able to find out anything related to algorithms. Every article is about Calculus and function optimization. I also read about them on Wikipedia but I can't figure out how to use them.

Is there a keyword that can describe better what I want to read?

This technique is called Lagrangian relaxation.

The regular $$DP$$ approach, where $$DP[a][b]$$ represents the length of the longest increasing subsequence that ends in the $$a$$'th number and restarts at most $$b$$ times, is $$\mathcal{O}(nk \log n)$$. For convenience we'll assume the last number is the largest, and therefore $$DP[n][k]$$ is the value we are looking for (if this isn't the case, append $$\infty$$ and after calculating the answer decrement it by $$1$$).

To optimize this, we'll select some $$\lambda \in \mathbb{N}$$ which represents the cost of every exception, and compute $$DP'[a] = \max_{b} DP[a][b] - \lambda b$$. This can be done in $$\mathcal{O}(n \log n)$$: first sort the values, and keep a range maximum data structure over them, with all positions $$j$$ initialised to $$v_{j} = 0$$. Assume the value at position $$i$$ is the $$p_{i}$$th in the sorted list of values. Then $$DP'[i] = \max(1 + \max_{j < p_{i}} v_{j}, 1 - \lambda + \max_{j > p_{i}} v_{j})$$, and we set $$v_{p_{i}} = DP'[i]$$.

What use is computing $$\max_{b} DP[n][b] - \lambda b$$ to us? Notice that as we increase $$\lambda$$, the optimal $$b$$ in the maximum cannot increase. Similarly as we decrease $$\lambda$$, the optimal $$b$$ cannot decrease. If $$\lambda = 0$$, it is optimal to take all elements to our subsequence, and if $$\lambda = n$$, it is optimal to have $$0$$ exceptions. If we can find $$\lambda$$ for which the optimal $$b$$ can be $$k$$, then $$DP[n][b] = DP'[n] + \lambda b$$. Further, if such $$\lambda$$ exists, we can do binary search for it, yielding a $$\mathcal{O}(n \log^{2} n)$$ algorithm.

Note that we can modify the $$\mathcal{O}(n \log n)$$ algorithm to calculate the minimum and maximum values of $$b$$ that achieve the maximum value with the specific $$\lambda$$ with no increase in complexity. We can always find a $$\lambda$$ for which $$\min_{b} \leq k \leq \max_{b}$$, but this doesn't guarantee that there exists some subsequence with $$k$$ exceptions achieving the maximum. However, if we can show that $$DP[n][b]$$ is concave, i.e. $$DP[n][b+2] - DP[n][b+1] \leq DP[n][b+1] - DP[n][b]$$, we get this result, as we know that $$DP[n][\min_{b} + 1] \leq DP[n][\min_{b}] + \lambda$$ (due to maximality), therefore $$DP[n][\max_{b}] \leq DP[n][k] + (\max_{b} - k) \lambda$$, hence $$DP'[n] = DP[n][\max_{b}] - \lambda \max_{b} \leq DP[n][k] - \lambda k$$ and there exists a subsequence with $$k$$ exceptions achieving the maximum.

EDIT: Here is a C++ program for finding a maximal subsequence in $$\mathcal{O}(n \log^{2} n)$$. I use a segment tree for the range maximum data structure.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;
using ll = long long;
const int INF = 2 * (int)1e9;

pair<ll, pair<int, int>> combine(pair<ll, pair<int, int>> le, pair<ll, pair<int, int>> ri) {
if (le.first < ri.first) swap(le, ri);
if (ri.first == le.first) {
le.second.first = min(le.second.first, ri.second.first);
le.second.second = max(le.second.second, ri.second.second);
}
return le;
}

// Specialised range maximum segment tree
class SegTree {
private:
vector<pair<ll, pair<int, int>>> seg;
int h = 1;

pair<ll, pair<int, int>> recGet(int a, int b, int i, int le, int ri) const {
if (ri <= a || b <= le) return {-INF, {INF, -INF}};
else if (a <= le && ri <= b) return seg[i];
else return combine(recGet(a, b, 2*i, le, (le+ri)/2), recGet(a, b, 2*i+1, (le+ri)/2, ri));
}
public:
SegTree(int n) {
while(h < n) h *= 2;
seg.resize(2*h, {-INF, {INF, -INF}});
}
void set(int i, pair<ll, pair<int, int>> off) {
seg[i+h] = combine(seg[i+h], off);
for (i += h; i > 1; i /= 2) seg[i/2] = combine(seg[i], seg[i^1]);
}
pair<ll, pair<int, int>> get(int a, int b) const {
return recGet(a, b+1, 1, 0, h);
}
};

// Binary searches index of v from sorted vector
int bins(const vector<int>& vec, int v) {
int low = 0;
int high = (int)vec.size() - 1;
while(low != high) {
int mid = (low + high) / 2;
if (vec[mid] < v) low = mid + 1;
else high = mid;
}
return low;
}

// Finds longest strictly increasing subsequence with at most k exceptions in O(n log^2 n)
vector<int> lisExc(int k, vector<int> vec) {
// Compress values
vector<int> ord = vec;
sort(ord.begin(), ord.end());
ord.erase(unique(ord.begin(), ord.end()), ord.end());
for (auto& v : vec) v = bins(ord, v) + 1;

// Binary search lambda
int n = vec.size();
int m = ord.size() + 1;
int lambda_0 = 0;
int lambda_1 = n;
while(true) {
int lambda = (lambda_0 + lambda_1) / 2;
SegTree seg(m);
if (lambda > 0) seg.set(0, {0, {0, 0}});
else seg.set(0, {0, {0, INF}});

// Calculate DP
vector<pair<ll, pair<int, int>>> dp(n);
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
auto off0 = seg.get(0, vec[i]-1); // previous < this
off0.first += 1;

auto off1 = seg.get(vec[i], m-1); // previous >= this
off1.first += 1 - lambda;
off1.second.first += 1;
off1.second.second += 1;

dp[i] = combine(off0, off1);
seg.set(vec[i], dp[i]);
}

// Is min_b <= k <= max_b?
auto off = seg.get(0, m-1);
if (off.second.second < k) {
lambda_1 = lambda - 1;
} else if (off.second.first > k) {
lambda_0 = lambda + 1;
} else {
// Construct solution
ll r = off.first + 1;
int v = m;
int b = k;
vector<int> res;
for (int i = n-1; i >= 0; --i) {
if (vec[i] < v) {
if (r == dp[i].first + 1 && dp[i].second.first <= b && b <= dp[i].second.second) {
res.push_back(i);
r -= 1;
v = vec[i];
}
} else {
if (r == dp[i].first + 1 - lambda && dp[i].second.first <= b-1 && b-1 <= dp[i].second.second) {
res.push_back(i);
r -= 1 - lambda;
v = vec[i];
--b;
}
}
}
reverse(res.begin(), res.end());
return res;
}
}
}

int main() {
int n, k;
cin >> n >> k;

vector<int> vec(n);
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) cin >> vec[i];

vector<int> ans = lisExc(k, vec);
for (auto i : ans) cout << i+1 << ' ';
cout << '\n';
}


EDIT2: Thanks to Jaehyun Koo over at Codeforces I now know how to show concavity. The following is a modified version of his proof.

Consider the array partitioning problem. In it we are given values $$cost[A][B]$$ representing the cost of interval $$[a, b)$$, and wish to partition the array into intervals $$[0, x_{1}), [x_{1}, x_{2}), \dots, x_{k}, n)$$. Let $$DP[n][k]$$ denote the maximum sum $$\sum_{i = 0}^{k} cost[x_{i}][x_{i+1}]$$, where $$x_{0} = 0$$, $$x_{k+1} = n$$. We claim that $$DP[n][k]$$ is concave if the costs are Monge, that is, for all $$a \leq b \leq c \leq d$$ we have $$cost[a][d] + cost[b][c] \leq cost[a][c] + cost[b][d]$$.

First we'll show that our problem is an instance of the array partitioning problem with Monge costs. Set $$cost[a][b]$$ to be the length of the longest increasing subsequence in the interval $$[a, b)$$. Then $$DP[n][k]$$ for this instance of the array partitioning problem equals $$DP[n][k]$$ for our longest increasing subsequence problem. It remains to show that the costs are Monge.

Choose $$a \leq b \leq c \leq d$$, and take any LIS $$L_{a, d} = x_{1}, \dots, x_{cost[a][d]}$$ in the interval $$[a, d)$$, and any LIS $$L_{b, d} = y_{1}, \dots, y_{cost[b][c]}$$ in the interval $$[b, c)$$. We will combine them into two increasing subsequences in the intervals $$[a, c)$$ and $$[b, d)$$ of equal total length. To do this, let $$x_{i}$$ be the first $$x$$ and $$x_{j}$$ be the last $$x$$ in $$[b, c)$$. If $$x_{i} \leq y_{1}$$, set $$L_{a, c} = (x_{1}, \dots, x_{i-1}, y_{1}, \dots, y_{cost[b][c]})$$, $$L_{b, d} = (x_{i}, \dots, x_{cost[a][d]})$$. If $$x_{j} \geq y_{cost[b][c]}$$ do the same reversed. Otherwise, exists some $$t, h$$ s.t. $$y_{h} \leq x_{t} \leq y_{h+1}$$. Then set $$L_{a, c} = (x_{1}, \dots, x_{t}, y_{h+1}, \dots, y_{cost[b, c]})$$ and $$L_{b, d} = (y_{1}, \dots, y_{h}, x_{t+1}, \dots, x_{cost[a, d]})$$. Hence our cost array is Monge.

Now we'll show that the array partitioning problem with Monge cost is concave. Note that $$DP[n][k+2] - DP[n][k+1] \leq DP[n][k+1] - DP[n][k]$$ is the same inequality as $$DP[n][k+2] + DP[n][k] \leq 2 DP[n][k+1]$$. Take any partitions $$x_{0}, \dots, x_{k+3}$$ and $$y_{0}, \dots, y_{k+1}$$ with values $$DP[n][k+2]$$ and $$DP[n][k]$$ respectively. Take any $$0 \leq i \leq k$$ such that $$y_{i} \leq x_{i+1} \leq x_{i+2} \leq y_{i+1}$$. Such $$i$$ always exists, as some interval $$[y_{i}, y_{i+1}]$$ must be the first such that the last $$x$$ before the end of the interval, $$x_{j+2} \leq y_{i+1}$$ has $$j \geq i$$, thus $$x_{i+2} \leq x_{j+2} \leq y_{i+1}$$ and $$y_{i} \leq x_{i+1}$$ as otherwise the interval $$[y_{i-1}, y_{i}]$$ would contain $$x_{i+1}$$ contradicting the minimality of $$i$$.

We make the partitions $$y_{0}, \dots, y_{i}, x_{i+2}, \dots, x_{k+3}$$ and $$x_{0}, \dots, x_{i+1}, y_{i+1}, \dots, y_{k+1}$$, both of length $$k+1$$. What is the difference in total value? Most terms cancel, but in the sum of values of the original we have $$cost[x_{i+1}][x_{i+2}]$$ and $$cost[y_{i}][y_{i+1}]$$, while in the new one we have $$cost[y_{i}][x_{i+2}]$$ and $$cost[x_{i+1}][y_{i+1}]$$. But since $$y_{i} \leq x_{i+1} \leq x_{i+2} \leq y_{i+1}$$, by the Monge property $$cost[y_{i}][y_{i+1}] + cost[x_{i+1}][x_{i+2}] \leq cost[y_{i}][x_{i+2}] + cost[x_{i+1}][y_{i+1}]$$, hence the total value can only increase, and $$DP[n][k+2] + DP[n][k] \leq 2 DP[n][k+1]$$.

• Thanks for taking the time to give the algorithm too. Where can I find more about this? I'm just curious because searching "Lagrangian relaxation" doesn't give anything algorithm-related.
– user113632
Dec 25 '19 at 10:53
• In competitive programming this trick is called the "Aliens trick" after the problem "Aliens" from IOI 2016 where it appeared. Searching for it should find you many blogs on the topic. I've also seen this technique in an approximation algorithm for the k-median problem, see the paper "Approximation algorithms for metric facility location and k-median problems using the primal-dual schema and Lagrangian relaxation", Journal of the ACM 2001. Dec 25 '19 at 13:31
• How could I find the optimal $b$ in the end so I can calculate the answer?
– user113632
Dec 26 '19 at 19:09
• If for every position you know $DP'[i]$, $\min_{b}[i]$ and $\max_{b}[i]$, you can maintain the current endpoint and number of restarts, $i = n, b = k$, then build a maximum subsequence iterating backwards. For $j < i$, if $v_{j} \leq v_{i}$ and $DP'[j] = DP'[i] - 1$, $\min_{b}[j] \leq b \leq \max_{b}[j]$, include $j$ to your sequence and set $i = j$. If $v_{j} > v_{i}$ and $DP'[j] = DP'[i] - 1 + \lambda$, $\min_{b}[j] \leq b-1 \leq \max_{b}[j]$, include $j$, set $i = j$ and $b = b-1$. Dec 26 '19 at 20:16
• I added code to solve this problem to my answer, you can refer to it for implementation details. Dec 26 '19 at 22:30