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Travelling Salesman Problem (Greedy Approach)

The document discusses the greedy approach to solving the travelling salesman problem (TSP). TSP involves finding the shortest route for a salesman to visit all cities on a list and return to the origin city. The greedy approach works by always selecting the shortest distance edge at each step to build the path locally, with the goal of obtaining the globally optimal path. An example TSP problem is provided and solved step-by-step using the greedy approach. Pseudocode is also given for a complete greedy algorithm to solve TSP.

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Elangovan M
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477 views7 pages

Travelling Salesman Problem (Greedy Approach)

The document discusses the greedy approach to solving the travelling salesman problem (TSP). TSP involves finding the shortest route for a salesman to visit all cities on a list and return to the origin city. The greedy approach works by always selecting the shortest distance edge at each step to build the path locally, with the goal of obtaining the globally optimal path. An example TSP problem is provided and solved step-by-step using the greedy approach. Pseudocode is also given for a complete greedy algorithm to solve TSP.

Uploaded by

Elangovan M
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Travelling Salesman Problem (Greedy Approach)

The t ravelling salesman problem is a graph comput at ional problem where t he salesman needs t o visit
all cit ies (represent ed using nodes in a graph) in a list just once and t he dist ances (represent ed using
edges in t he graph) bet ween all t hese cit ies are known. The solut ion t hat is needed t o be found for
t his problem is t he short est possible rout e in which t he salesman visit s all t he cit ies and ret urns t o
t he origin cit y.

If you look at t he graph below, considering t hat t he salesman st art s from t he vert ex ‘a’, t hey need t o
t ravel t hrough all t he remaining vert ices b, c, d, e, f and get back t o ‘a’ while making sure t hat t he
cost t aken is minimum.

There are various approaches t o find t he solut ion t o t he t ravelling salesman problem: naive approach,
greedy approach, dynamic programming approach, et c. In t his t ut orial we will be learning about
solving t ravelling salesman problem using greedy approach.

Travelling Salesperson Algorithm


As t he definit ion for greedy approach st at es, we need t o find t he best opt imal solut ion locally t o
figure out t he global opt imal solut ion. The input s t aken by t he algorit hm are t he graph G {V, E}, where
V is t he set of vert ices and E is t he set of edges. The short est pat h of graph G st art ing from one
vert ex ret urning t o t he same vert ex is obt ained as t he out put .

Algorithm
Travelling salesman problem t akes a graph G {V, E} as an input and declare anot her graph as
t he out put (say G’) which will record t he pat h t he salesman is going t o t ake from one node t o
anot her.
The algorit hm begins by sort ing all t he edges in t he input graph G from t he least dist ance t o
t he largest dist ance.
The first edge select ed is t he edge wit h least dist ance, and one of t he t wo vert ices (say A
and B) being t he origin node (say A).

Then among t he adjacent edges of t he node ot her t han t he origin node (B), find t he least
cost edge and add it ont o t he out put graph.
Cont inue t he process wit h furt her nodes making sure t here are no cycles in t he out put graph
and t he pat h reaches back t o t he origin node A.
However, if t he origin is ment ioned in t he given problem, t hen t he solut ion must always st art
from t hat node only. Let us look at some example problems t o underst and t his bet t er.

Examples

Consider t he following graph wit h six cit ies and t he dist ances bet ween t hem −

From t he given graph, since t he origin is already ment ioned, t he solut ion must always st art from t hat
node. Among t he edges leading from A, A → B has t he short est dist ance.
Then, B → C has t he short est and only edge bet ween, t herefore it is included in t he out put graph.

There’s only one edge bet ween C → D, t herefore it is added t o t he out put graph.

There’s t wo out ward edges from D. Even t hough, D → B has lower dist ance t han D → E, B is already
visit ed once and it would form a cycle if added t o t he out put graph. Therefore, D → E is added int o
t he out put graph.
There’s only one edge from e, t hat is E → F. Therefore, it is added int o t he out put graph.

Again, even t hough F → C has lower dist ance t han F → A, F → A is added int o t he out put graph in
order t o avoid t he cycle t hat would form and C is already visit ed once.
The short est pat h t hat originat es and ends at A is A → B → C → D → E → F → A

The cost of t he pat h is: 16 + 21 + 12 + 15 + 16 + 34 = 114.

Even t hough, t he cost of pat h could be decreased if it originat es from ot her nodes but t he quest ion
is not raised wit h respect t o t hat .

Example
The complet e implement at ion of Travelling Salesman Problem using Greedy Approach is given below
−

C C++ Java Pyt hon

#include <stdio.h>
int tsp_g[10][10] = {
{12, 30, 33, 10, 45},
{56, 22, 9, 15, 18},
{29, 13, 8, 5, 12},
{33, 28, 16, 10, 3},
{1, 4, 30, 24, 20}
};
int visited[10], n, cost = 0;

/* creating a function to generate the shortest path */


void travellingsalesman(int c){
int k, adj_vertex = 999;
int min = 999;

/* marking the vertices visited in an assigned array */


visited[c] = 1;

/* displaying the shortest path */


printf("%d ", c + 1);

/* checking the minimum cost edge in the graph */


for(k = 0; k < n; k++) {
if((tsp_g[c][k] != 0) && (visited[k] == 0)) {
if(tsp_g[c][k] < min) {
min = tsp_g[c][k];
}
adj_vertex = k;
}
}
if(min != 999) {
cost = cost + min;
}
if(adj_vertex == 999) {
adj_vertex = 0;
printf("%d", adj_vertex + 1);
cost = cost + tsp_g[c][adj_vertex];
return;
}
travellingsalesman(adj_vertex);
}

/* main function */
int main(){
int i, j;
n = 5;
for(i = 0; i < n; i++) {
visited[i] = 0;
}
printf("Shortest Path: ");
travellingsalesman(0);
printf("\nMinimum Cost: ");
printf("%d\n", cost);
return 0;
}

Output

Shortest Path: 1 5 4 3 2 1
Minimum Cost: 99

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