Chapter 3

The Greedy Method

3 -1
 A simple example
 Problem: Pick k numbers out of n
numbers such that the sum of these k
numbers is the largest.
 Algorithm:
FOR i = 1 to k
pick out the largest number and
delete this number from the input.
ENDFOR

3 -2
 The greedy method
 Suppose that a problem can be solved by a
sequence of decisions. The greedy method
has that each decision is locally optimal.
These locally optimal solutions will finally add
up to a globally optimal solution.
 < 戰國策 . 秦策 > 范錐對秦王說：「王不如遠
交而近攻，得寸，王之寸；得尺，亦王之尺
也。」
 Only a few optimization problems can be
solved by the greedy method.

3 -3
Shortest paths on a special graph
 Problem: Find a shortest path from v0 to v3.
 The greedy method can solve this problem.
 The shortest path: 1 + 2 + 4 = 7.

3 -4
 Shortest paths on a multi-stage graph
 Problem: Find a shortest path from v0 to v3 in the multi-stage
graph.

 Greedy method: v0v1,2v2,1v3 = 23

3 -5
Solution of the above problem
 dmin(i,j): minimum distance between i
and j.
3
+
d
(
v
m
i
n
1,
v
,
1)
3

1
+
d(
v,
v)
d
(
v
m
i
n,
v
0
3)
=
m
i
nm
i
n
1,
23
5
+
d
(
v
m
i
n
1,
v
,
3)
3

7
+
d(
v
m
i
n
1,
v
,
4)
3

 This problem can be solved by the

3 -7
Example:
i 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
si 1 3 0 5 3 5 6 8 8 2 12
fi 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
The solution set = {1, 4, 8, 11}
Algorithm:
Step 1: Sort fi into nondecreasing order. After sorting, f1  f2 
f3  …  fn.
Step 2: Add the next activity i to the solution set if i is
compatible with each in the solution set.
Step 3: Stop if all activities are examined. Otherwise, go to
step 2.

Time complexity: O(nlogn)

3 -8
Solution of the example:
i si fi accept
1 1 4 Yes
2 3 5 No
3 0 6 No
4 5 7 Yes
5 3 8 No
7 6 10 No
8 8 11 Yes
9 8 12 No
10 2 13 No
11 12 14 Yes
Solution = {1, 4, 8, 11}
3 -9
Job sequencing with deadlines
 Problem: n jobs, S={1, 2, …, n}, each job i has a
deadline di  0 and a profit pi  0. We need one unit
of time to process each job and we can do at most
one job each time. We can earn the profit pi if job i
is completed by its deadline.

i 1 2 3 4 5
pi 20 15 10 5 1
di 2 2 1 3 3

The optimal solution = {1, 2, 4}.

3 -10
Algorithm:
Step 1: Sort pi into nonincreasing order. After
sorting p1  p2  p3  …  pi.
Step 2: Add the next job i to the solution set if i
can be completed by its deadline. Assign i to
time slot [r-1, r], where r is the largest
integer such that 1  r  di and [r-1, r] is free.
Step 3: Stop if all jobs are examined.
Otherwise, go to step 2.

Time complexity: O(n2)

3 -11
e.g.
i pi di
1 20 2 assign to [1, 2]
2 15 2 assign to [0, 1]
3 10 1 reject
4 5 3 assign to [2, 3]
5 1 3 reject

solution = {1, 2, 4}
total profit = 20 + 15 + 5 = 40

3 -12
 The knapsack problem
 n objects, each with a weight wi > 0
a profit pi > 0
capacity of knapsack: M
 pi xi
Maximize 1 i  n
 w i xi  M
Subject to 1i  n
0  xi  1, 1  i  n

3 -13
 The knapsack algorithm
 The greedy algorithm:
Step 1: Sort pi/wi into nonincreasing order.
Step 2: Put the objects into the knapsack according
to the sorted sequence as possible as we can.
 e. g.
n = 3, M = 20, (p1, p2, p3) = (25, 24, 15)
(w1, w2, w3) = (18, 15, 10)
Sol: p1/w1 = 25/18 = 1.32
p2/w2 = 24/15 = 1.6
p3/w3 = 15/10 = 1.5
Optimal solution: x1 = 0, x2 = 1, x3 = 1/2
total profit = 24 + 7.5 = 31.5
3 -14
 The 2-way merging problem
 # of comparisons required for the linear 2-
way merge algorithm is m1+ m2 -1 where m1
and m2 are the lengths of the two sorted lists
respectively.
 2-way merging example
2 3 5 6
1 4 7 8
 The problem: There are n sorted lists, each of
length mi. What is the optimal sequence of
merging process to merge these n lists into
one sorted list ?
3 -15
 Extended binary trees
 An extended binary tree representing a 2-way
merge

3 -16
An example of 2-way merging
 Example: 6 sorted lists with lengths
2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13.

3 -17
 Time complexity for generating
an optimal extended binary
tree:O(n log n)
 Using min-heap

3 -18
 Huffman codes
 In telecommunication, how do we represent a
set of messages, each with an access
frequency, by a sequence of 0’s and 1’s?
 To minimize the transmission and decoding
costs, we may use short strings to represent
more frequently used messages.
 This problem can by solved by using an
extended binary tree which is used in the 2-
way merging problem.

3 -19
 An example of Huffman algorithm
 Symbols: A, B, C, D, E, F, G
freq. : 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 15, 18

 Huffman codes:
A: 10100 B: 10101 C: 1011
D: 100 E: 00 F: 01
G: 11

A Huffman code Tree

3 -20