36
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How to prove greedy algorithm is correct
Ultimately, you'll need a mathematical proof of correctness. I'll get to some proof techniques for that below, but first, before diving into that, let me save you some time: before you look for a ...
D.W.♦
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14
votes
How to prove greedy algorithm is correct
I will use the following simple sorting algorithm as an example:
...
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9
votes
Accepted
Matrix Chain Multiplication Greedy Approach
You don't state why you think that your algorithm is correct. In fact, it is incorrect. Here is an example. Consider the problem of computing the product of matrices of dimensions $2\times 1$, $1\...
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8
votes
Accepted
Counterexample to this modified Dijkstra's
Your algorithm makes the wrong choice between the following two paths:
5 channels with a reliability of 50% (combined reliability 3.125%), weight $5 \cdot {1 \over 0.50} = 10$.
A single channel with ...
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7
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Knapsack Greedy Approximation: Worst Case
The approximation ratio is always strictly larger than $1/2$. Let $p_1,\ldots,p_{k-1}$ be the values of the items picked by algorithm, and let $p_k$ be the value of the next item which would have been ...
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7
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Please explain a greedy algorithm in a naive manner
In simple words, an algorithm is normally considered "greedy" if
it builds solutions step by step without backtracking
in each step it picks what's best in the current state.
To learn more about it,...
7
votes
Accepted
Is there a polynomial time algorithm to determine whether an 'up down' language is 'emptible'?
Reduction from 3-SAT:
a variable in 3-SAT becomes a character in your problem and is paired with its negation. Each clause becomes a word.
e.g.
3 SAT: (a,b,-c) && (-b,c) =>
pairs: (a,-a), (...
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7
votes
Accepted
Find the lexicographically smallest order of N numbers such that the total of N numbers <= Threshold value
You are on the right track.
It turns out the original question can be solved by a greedy algorithm. (A full blown solution by dynamic programming as I tried a while ago is both an overkill on coding ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Do all greedy algorithm produce just the first solution, no matter how bad it is?
Yes, this is the idea of greedy algorithms, also known as myopic algorithms. There is still a lot of freedom in deciding what the myopic choice is based on. Allan Borodin has developed a theory of ...
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6
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Can sampling remove the limitations in greedy algorithm?
It's unclear why you single out the greedy algorithm; there are many different algorithms for combinatorial optimization, the greedy algorithm (or rather, greedy-like algorithms, also known as myopic ...
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6
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Greedy and backtracking solutions to an arrangement problem with constraints
Overview of the problem
If you takes teenagers as vertices of a graph, and have an edge
whenever the two teenagers are compatible. This gives you an
undirected graph, and what you need is a ...
- 19.1k
6
votes
greedy algorithm for Maximum directed cut
The starting point is the trivial random algorithm that chooses $S$ completely at random. Each directed edge is cut with probability $1/4$ (why?), and so in expectation, this random algorithm gives a $...
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6
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Accepted
Correctness of the greedy algorithm
If I am right, the configuration below leads to a 7 blocks greedy solution (on the left). By symmetry, all four directions.
But there is an 8 blocks solution (on the right).
The problem with a ...
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A general algorithm for greedy algorithms
There is no such thing as the correct generalization of the greedy selection technique, because it's an informal technique. That said, there has been some effort at modeling the greedy heuristic, with ...
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5
votes
Please explain a greedy algorithm in a naive manner
Greedy algorithms can be used whenever you can think of the solution to the problem being reached in steps. The strategy is then just to choose the next step that looks best in some (usually simple, "...
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5
votes
Please explain a greedy algorithm in a naive manner
Your understanding is completely wrong: what you describe is known as hill climbing or gradient descent in the continuous case, and local search in the discrete case.
The best way to understand what ...
- 270k
5
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Greedy and backtracking solutions to an arrangement problem with constraints
The idea of the backtracking algorithm is simple, though somewhat cumbersome to express. Perhaps it's easiest to explain it working through the example in the question. We start by putting $T_1$ on ...
- 270k
5
votes
Greedy Algorithms for Non-monotone Submodular Maximization with Cardinality Constraints
Edit: See my answer to the same question on math stackexchange here. I've copy and pasted the answer again for ease of use.
There has been a recent line of work investigating algorithms for ...
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votes
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set with maximum sum consisting of mutually co-prime numbers
Project Euler asks you to solve the problems yourself, without help. So dont read on if you want to submit a solution for Project Euler; that would be cheating.
Since the numbers are mutually co-...
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Vertex cover algorithms for directed graphs?
Thanks for the edit! This isn't vertex cover; it's something different.
There are simple algorithms for this problem. Decompose the graph into a dag of strongly connected components. (The dag is ...
D.W.♦
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5
votes
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Greedy algorithms: Minimum sum number pairing
Suppose that numbers are $x_1, \ldots x_{2n}$, and let us rename them as $a_1, \ldots a_n, b_1, \ldots, b_n$, where $a_i \geq b_j$ for any $i, j$, $a_1 \geq a_2 \geq \ldots \geq a_n$, and $b_1 \leq ...
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Accepted
Prove that the greedy algorithm to remove k digits from a n-digit positive integer is optimal
The greedy algorithm is optimal.
The simple observation is that any optimal $k$ digits to remove must contain the rightmost digit in the initial non-decreasing digits of A, or one of its equivalents....
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4
votes
Accepted
Greedy proof: Correctness versus optimality
You can use whatever proof method you want. Proofs aren't even limited to existing patterns such as "greedy stay ahead" and "swapping". Indeed, in some cases, such as the greedy algorithm for ...
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4
votes
Coin Change Problem(Greedy Algorithm)
For the set of coins (2,3,11). $\frac{3}{2}<\frac{11}{3}$ so by your assumption we can be greedy here. Consider the value of 23. The greedy strategy would involve first taking 2 11 cent coins to ...
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Correctness of the greedy algorithm
The example provided by Valentin Lorentz can be slightly modified to break your solution for one order of traversal:
1 0 0 1
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
You can build a ...
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Accepted
Information about ε-greedy algorithms
ε-greedy is just a way to promote exploration in Reinforcement Learning. I would not classify SARSA or Q-Learning as ε-greedy algorithms.
The latter are very common reinforcement learning algorithms ...
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Dynamic Programming vs Greedy - coin change problem
A dynamic approach would say that "x$ can be made out of change using, as the first coin, v1 or v2 or v3 ... or vn" and then build a table so that the second coin would be v1 or v2 or v3 ... or vn + ...
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votes
Accepted
Maximum cut using a 1/2 approximation greedy algorithm
Let us say that an edge $(v,w)$ belongs to $v$ if when $v$ is processed, $w \in A \cup B$, and that $(v_1,v_2)$ belongs to $v_2$. Denote by $N_v$ the number of edges belonging to $v$, and by $C_v$ the ...
- 270k
4
votes
Accepted
Correctness proof for greedy algorithm based on ratio
The strategy to prove your ratio greedy algorithm is what I called "unimprovable solution by exchange of elements".
Instead of proving that an algorithm produces the optimal solution, this strategy ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Merging balls interview problem
Keep all the values $\frac{D_i - D_{i+1}}{V_i - V_{i+1}}$ in a min-heap. At each step, remove the minimum value, say $T = \frac{D_i - D_{i+1}}{V_i - V_{i+1}}$. We would first like to update all ...
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