1.

00 Problem Set #9: Sample Solution A

Greedy Algorithm
Problem 2: Compatibility Algorithm

Refer to the more detailed description of classes in Problem 1. A Pair is a potential

(male, female) pair of Lover objects. We assign an integer compatibility score for each
pair. A compatibility value of 0 means that the two are not at all compatible. Each
number after that is the number of characteristics (from the survey) that match both
malefemale and femalemale directions.

Male and female each have a myProfile and desiredProfile.

Computation is as follows:

For each characteristic in the list

if males desiredProfile value is 0 (dont care) then
if the females desiredProfile value is 0 (dont care) OR the same
as the males myProfile, increment the score

else if females desiredProfile value is 0 (dont care) then

if the males desiredProfile value is the same as the females
myProfile value, increment the score

else if the males value is same as females value then

increment the score

Possible modifications
This algorithm treats all characteristics equally, including those that the participants
designated as dont care values. It could instead assign lower scores to dont care
type matches, since the user didnt think that characteristic was important.

Also, it doesnt try to assign any fuzzy matches. For example, instead of requiring an
exact match for age brackets, two potential mates who only differ by one age brackets
could be assigned a value of 0.5 instead of 0 for that characteristic. (Fuzzy matches
wouldnt work well for any of the other characteristics in this particular survey, though.)

1.00 PS#9 Sample Solutions 1/3

Problem 3: Matching Algorithm

The task is to match all males with femalesor at least as many as possible. High

compatibility is most important, so we can choose either to try to maximize total

compatibility (the sum of compatibility scores for the final resulting matches), or average

compatibility. Either is okay, but we have chosen to maximize total compatibility in this

solution.

The algorithm described here may not produce the optimal results, but it will at least find

the very best match, second best match, etc, and it will do so relatively efficiently.

Step 1.

Put all male contestants in an unpaired males list. Put female contestants in an unpaired

female list. Prepare an empty list for paired couples.

Go through all possible matches of males to females (or vice versa) and find the couple

with the HIGHEST COMPATIBILITY. Add this couple to a paired list, and remove

them from their respective unpaired lists.

Optional: instead of just taking one couple with the highest score, take a list of all

couples with the same (highest) score. We will refer to this option as the multiple

solution option. It will result in a better solution in most cases, but it is more

complicated.

Step 2.

Recurse through the remaining list in the same was as step 1. (Find the couple with the

highest compatibility from the remaining unpaired lists, add them to the paired list, and

remove from the unpaired list.)

When one of the following conditions is true, a solution has been reached:

a) unpaired males list is empty

b) unpaired females list is empty
c) the best compatibility score among the remaining unpaired people is 0

When one of these occurs, the algorithm should terminate. The list of pairs should be
output, and the list of unpaired males and females should also be output.

Optional multiple solution: When following all highest compatibility valued solutions,
it is necessary to copy the three lists: unpaired males, unpaired females, and paired
couples each time a solution is tried.

This is because each branch must be evaluated independently. Furthermore, we need

to keep track of the compatibility sum, which is the sum of all the compatibility scores of
pairs in the paired list.

1.00 PS#9 Sample Solutions 2/3

As an example, consider the following case in which we have been given n males and m
females.

unpaired males unpaired females paired couples

male1 female1 (empty list)

male2 female2
Initial condition:
... ...
malen femalem

In the initial condition, the paired couples list is empty, and the unpaired lists contain all
the subjects.

Lets say that the match with the highest compatibility score (of 7) occurred for male2
and female1. Lets also assume that the match between male1 and femalem resulted in a
compatibility score of 7 as well. We copy all three lists for each scenario, and try them
out separately:

unpaired males unpaired females paired couples unpaired males unpaired females paired couples
male1 female2 (male2, female1) male2 female1 (male1, femalem)
male3 female3 male3 female2
... ... ... ...
malen femalem malen femalem-1
male2 removed female1 removed male1 removed femalem removed

Example of recursion using multiple possible solutions

The diagram shows the three lists as the first recursion happens. On the left, male2 has
been paired with female1, and the two have been removed from their respective unpaired
lists. On the right, male1 has been paired with femalem, and the two have been removed
from their respective unpaired lists.

In effect, this will create a tree, with as many children nodes as there are highest value
compatibility scores from the remaining unpaired lists. The match() method
described in problem 1 must call itself recursively several times in a loop in order to
implement this algorithm.

All lists used here can be Vector objects. (We could also use arrays, but would have to
resize them) The algorithm described here is O(n3).

1.00 PS#9 Sample Solutions 3/3