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Back T

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Abera kechero
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Chapter 5

Backtracking
General Concepts

Algorithm strategy
Approach to solving a problem
May combine several approaches
Algorithm structure
Iterative  execute action in loop
Recursive  reapply action to sub problem(s)
Problem type
Satisfying  find any satisfactory solution
Optimization  find best solutions (vs. cost
metric)
Suppose you have to make a series of
decisions, among various choices, where
You don’t have enough information to know
what to choose
Each decision leads to a new set of choices
Some sequence of choices (possibly more than
one) may be a solution to your problem
Backtracking is a methodical way of trying
out various sequences of decisions, until you
find one that “works”
Solving a maze
• Given a maze, find a path from start to finish
• At each intersection, you have to decide between three
or fewer choices:
– Go straight
– Go left
– Go right
• You don’t have enough information to choose correctly
• Each choice leads to another set of choices
• One or more sequences of choices may (or may not)
lead to a solution
• Many types of maze problem can be solved with
backtracking
• Backtracking is a technique used to solve
problems with a large search space, by
systematically trying and eliminating
possibilities.
• A standard example of backtracking would be
going through a maze.
– At some point in a maze, you might have two
options of whichPortion
direction
A
to go:
on
ncti
Ju
Portion B
Backtracking
One strategy would be to try on
ncti
going through Portion A of Ju
the maze.
Portion B
If you get stuck before you
find your way out, then

Portion A
you "backtrack" to the
junction.

At this point in time you know


that Portion A will NOT lead
you out of the maze,
so you then start searching
in Portion B
Backtracking
• Clearly, at a single junction
you could have even more
than 2 choices.

• The backtracking strategy


says to try each choice, one
after the other, n
ti o
– if you ever get stuck, n c
"backtrack" to the junction
Ju C
and try the next choice. B
A

• If you try all choices and


never found a way out, then
there IS no solution to the
Backtracking – Eight Queens Problem
• Find an arrangement of 8 queens
on a single chess board such that
no two queens are attacking one
another.

• In chess, queens can move all the


way down any row, column or
diagonal (so long as no pieces are
in the way).

– Due to the first two restrictions,


it's clear that each row and
column of the board will have
exactly one queen.
Backtracking – Eight Queens Problem
• The backtracking strategy is as
follows:
Q
1) Place a queen on the first Q
available square in row 1. Q
Q
2) Move onto the next row, placing Q Q
a queen on the first available
square there (that doesn't conflict
with the previously placed Continue…
queens).

3) Continue in this fashion until


either:
a) you have solved the problem, or
b) you get stuck.
– When you get stuck, remove the queens
that got you there, until you get to a row
where there is another valid square to try.
Backtracking – Eight Queens Problem
• When we carry out backtracking, an easy
way to visualize what is going on is a tree
that shows all the different possibilities
that have been tried.
• On the board we will show a visual
representation of solving the 4 Queens
problem (placing 4 queens on a 4x4 board
where no two attack one another).
Backtracking – Eight Queens Problem

• The neat thing about coding up backtracking,


is that it can be done recursively, without
having to do all the bookkeeping at once.
– Instead, the stack or recursive calls does most of
the bookkeeping
– (ie, keeping track of which queens we've placed,
and which combinations we've tried so far, etc.)
perm[] - stores a valid permutation of queens from index 0 to location-1.
location – the column we are placing the next queen
usedList[] – keeps track of the rows in which the queens have already been placed.

void solveItRec(int perm[], int location, struct onesquare usedList[]) {

if (location == SIZE) { Found a solution to the problem, so print it!


printSol(perm);
} Loop through possible rows to place this queen.
for (int i=0; i<SIZE; i++) {
Only try this row if it hasn’t been used
if (usedList[i] == false) {
Check if this position conflicts with any previous
if (!conflict(perm, location, i)) { queens on the diagonal

perm[location] = i; 1) mark the queen in this row


usedList[i] = true; 2) mark the row as used
solveItRec(perm, location+1, usedList); 3) solve the next column location
recursively
usedList[i] = false;
4) un-mark the row as used, so we
} can get ALL possible valid
} solutions.
}
}
Backtracking – 8 queens problem - Analysis
• Another possible brute-force algorithm is generate the permutations of
the numbers 1 through 8 (of which there are 8! = 40,320),
– and uses the elements of each permutation as indices to place a queen on
each row.
– Then it rejects those boards with diagonal attacking positions.
• The backtracking algorithm, is a slight improvement on the
permutation method,
– constructs the search tree by considering one row of the board at a time,
eliminating most non-solution board positions at a very early stage in their
construction.
– Because it rejects row and diagonal attacks even on incomplete boards, it
examines only 15,720 possible queen placements.

• A further improvement which examines only 5,508 possible queen


placements is to combine the permutation based method with the early
pruning method:
– The permutations are generated depth-first, and the search space is pruned if
the partial permutation produces a diagonal attack
Coloring a map
• You wish to color a map with
not more than four colors
– red, yellow, green, blue
• Adjacent countries must be in
different colors
• You don’t have enough information to choose colors
• Each choice leads to another set of choices
• One or more sequences of choices may (or may not)
lead to a solution
• Many coloring problems can be solved with
backtracking
14

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