in reply to Multi-token word chains (was The Threeve Game)
in thread The Threeve Game

FYI: The problem of finding the longest "chain" is NP-complete, even in the case of just 2-word phrases, as can be seen from a reduction from the longest path problem in directed graphs.

Each single word is a vertex, and there is an edge from word A to word B if "A B" is a valid 2-word phrase. A path in the graph corresponds to a "chain" of valid 2-word phrases in this game, and we want to find the longest one.

blokhead

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Re^2: Multi-token word chains (was The Threeve Game)
by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Feb 11, 2010 at 15:46 UTC
    blokhead,
    FYI: The problem of finding the longest "chain" is NP-complete

    Yes, I know which is why I said "Oh, I am pretty sure there is a fairly well known computer science problem hidden within so heuristics solutions are likely necessary." See for instance, Not Quite Longest Path Problem. I am really not interested in someone finding the longest path but someone who can find a long path that is longer than everyone else and examine their heuristic solution.

    Cheers - L~R

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