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Greedy Algorithms

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Pushpraj Pandey
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9 views

Greedy Algorithms

Uploaded by

Pushpraj Pandey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Greedy Algorithms

• Many optimization problems can be solved more


quickly using a greedy approach
– The basic principle is that local optimal decisions may
may be used to build an optimal solution
– But the greedy approach may not always lead to an
optimal solution overall for all problems
– The key is knowing which problems will work with
this approach and which will not
• We will study
– The activity selection problem
– Element of a greedy strategy
– The problem of generating Huffman codes
The Activity Selection Problem
• Here are a set of start and finish times

• What is the maximum number of activities that can be


completed?
• {a3, a9, a11} can be completed
• But so can {a1, a4, a8’ a11} which is a larger set
• But it is not unique, consider {a2, a4, a9’ a11}
• We will solve this problem in the following manner
• Show the optimal substructure property holds
• Solve the problem using dynamic programming
• Show it is greedy and provide a recursive greedy solution
• Provide an iterative greedy solution
Developing a Dynamic Solution
• Define the following subset of activities which are activities that
can start after ai finishes and finish before aj starts

• Sort the activities according to finish time

• We now define the the maximal set of activities from i to j as

• Let c[i,j] be the maximal number of activities

• Our recurrence relation for finding c[i, j] becomes

• We can solve this using dynamic programming, but a simpler


approach exists
We Show this is a Greedy Problem

• What are the consequences?


– Normally we have to inspect all subproblems, here we
only have to choose one subproblem
– What this theorem says is that we only have to find the
first subproblem with the smallest finishing time
– This means we can solve the problem top down by
selecting the optimal solution to the local subproblem
A Top Down Recursive Solution

• The step by step solution is on the next slide


• Assuming the activities have been sorted by finish
times, then the complexity of this algorithm is Θ
(n)
• Developing an iterative algorithm would be even
faster
• Here is a step by
step solution
• Notice that the
solution is not
unique
• But the solution
is still optimal
• No larger set of
activities can be
found
An Iterative Approach
• The recursive algorithm is almost tail recursive (what is that?) but
there is a final union operation
• We let fi be the maximum finishing time for any activity in A

• The loop in lines 4-7 stops when the earliest finishing time is found

•The overall complexity of this algorithm is Θ(n)


Elements of a Greedy Strategy
• We went through the following steps for the activity
selector problem

• This was designed to show the similarities and differences


between dynamic programming and the Greedy approach;
these steps can be simplified if we apply the Greedy
approach directly
Applying Greedy Directly
• Steps in designing a greedy algorithm

• You must show the greedy choice property holds: a global


optimal solution can be reached by a local optimal choice
• The optimal substructure property holds (the same as
dynamic programming)
Greedy vs. Dynamic Programming
• Any problem solvable by Greedy can be solved by
dynamic programming, but not vice versa
• Two related example problems
Knapsack Problems - 1
• Both problems exhibit the optimal substructure
property, so both can be solved by dynamic
programming
• Only the fractional knapsack problem can be
solved by a Greedy approach
• Some key ideas in the Greedy solution
– Calculate the value per pound (vi/wi) for each item
– Store this data in a priority queue so that the maximum
value can always be selected next
– Remove items and add to the total weight until all the
weight is exhausted
– The complexity in O( n log n) (why?)
Knapsack Problems - 2
• The same approach will not work for the 0/1
knapsack problem, as seen in the diagram below

• The 0/1 knapsack problem can be solved using


dynamic programming where all subcases are
considered

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