in reply to Re: Travelling problem
in thread Travelling problem

Yes, you are right. The "travelling salesman problem" exactly describes my problem. Thank you!!!

I have 24 places and I know the distance between these places in km. I have to visit the first place, then 22 places in any order and then the 24th place. I don't need a perfect solution. I just want to find a short way, not the shortest one. And the computation time should not be too long. An approximation is enough.

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Re^3: Travelling problem (minimal hamilton path)
by LanX (Saint) on Dec 21, 2013 at 23:04 UTC
    The Christofides Algorithm mentioned by educated foo guaranties a solution better than 1.5 times the optimum.

    Nota bene: since you have a fixed start and end for an "open" hamiltonian path (i.e. not a circle like in the TSP) you'll need to adjust the algorithm accordingly. ¹

    Cheers Rolf

    ( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

    update

    ¹) after reading two SO discussions (search "minimal hamilton path") you just need to add a dummy point neighboring (only) the desired start- and end-point with distance 0 (!)

    Like this any TSP algorithm will chose start and end as neighbors for a hamilton circle with the same accumulated length like a optimized hamilton path, you just need to ignore the two dummy edges at the end.

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Re^3: Travelling problem
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Dec 21, 2013 at 21:21 UTC
    I have 24 places and I know the distance between these places in km. I have to visit the first place, then 22 places in any order and then the 24th place.

    Could you post a sample dataset?

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    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
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        Start at 1 and end at 24?

        With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
        Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
        "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
        In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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