CSCE 411H

Design and Analysis

of Algorithms
Set 8: Greedy Algorithms
Prof. Evdokia Nikolova*
Spring 2013

* Slides adapted from Prof. Jennifer Welch

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 1

Greedy Algorithm Paradigm
Characteristics of greedy algorithms:
make a sequence of choices
each choice is the one that seems best so far,
only depends on what's been done so far
choice produces a smaller problem to be solved
In order for greedy heuristic to solve the
problem, it must be that the optimal
solution to the big problem contains
optimal solutions to subproblems

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 2

Designing a Greedy
Algorithm
Cast the problem so that we make a greedy
(locally optimal) choice and are left with
one subproblem
Prove there is always a (globally) optimal
solution to the original problem that makes
the greedy choice
Show that the choice together with an
optimal solution to the subproblem gives an
optimal solution to the original problem

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 3

Some Greedy Algorithms
fractional knapsack algorithm
Huffman codes
Kruskal's MST algorithm
Prim's MST algorithm
Dijkstra's SSSP algorithm

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 4

Knapsack Problem
There are n different items in a store
Item i :
weighs wi pounds
worth $vi
A thief breaks in
Can carry up to W pounds in his knapsack
What should he take to maximize the
value of his haul?

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 5

0-1 vs. Fractional Knapsack
0-1 Knapsack Problem:
the items cannot be divided
thief must take entire item or leave it
behind
Fractional Knapsack Problem:
thief can take partial items
for instance, items are liquids or powders
solvable with a greedy algorithm

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 6

Greedy Fractional Knapsack
Algorithm
Sort items in decreasing order of
value per pound
While still room in the knapsack (limit
of W pounds) do
consider next item in sorted list
take as much as possible (all there is or as
much as will fit)
O(n log n) running time (for the sort)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 7

Greedy 0-1 Knapsack Alg?
3 items:
item 1 weighs 10 lbs, worth $60 ($6/lb)
item 2 weighs 20 lbs, worth $100 ($5/lb)
item 3 weighs 30 lbs, worth $120 ($4/lb)
knapsack can hold 50 lbs
greedy strategy:
take item 1
take item 2
no room for item 3

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 8

0-1 Knapsack Problem
Taking item 1 is a big mistake globally
although looks good locally
Use dynamic programming to solve
this in pseudo-polynomial time

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 9

Finding Optimal Code
Input:
data file of characters and
number of occurrences of each character
Output:
a binary encoding of each character so
that the data file can be represented as
efficiently as possible
"optimal code"

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 10

Huffman Code
Idea: use short codes for more
frequent characters and long codes
for less frequent
char a b c d e f total
bits
# 45 13 12 16 9 5
fixed 000 001 010 011 100 101 300
variab 0 101 100 111 1101 1100 224
le

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 11

How to Decode?
With fixed length code, easy:
break up into 3's, for instance
For variable length code, ensure that
no character's code is the prefix of
another
no ambiguity
101111110100
b d e aa

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 12

Binary Tree Representation

fixed length code

0 1
cost of code is sum,
0 0 over all chars c, of
1
number of occurrences
of c times depth of c in
0 1 0 1 0 1 the tree

a b c d e f

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 13

Binary Tree Representation
0 1
variable length code
a 0
1
cost of code is sum,
0 1 0 1 over all chars c, of
number of occurrences
b 0 of c times depth of c in
c 1 d the tree

f e

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 14

Algorithm to Construct Tree
Representing Huffman Code
Given set C of n chars, c occurs f[c] times
insert each c into priority queue Q using f[c]
as key
for i := 1 to n-1 do
x := extract-min(Q)
y := extract-min(Q)
make a new node z w/ left child x (label edge 0),
right child y (label edge 1), and f[z] = f[x] + f[y]
insert z into Q

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 15

<board work>

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 16

Minimum Spanning Tree
16
5 4 11
12
7
3 14
6 9 2
10 8
15
17
13 18
Given a connected undirected graph with edge weigh
find subset of edges that spans all the nodes,
creates no cycle, and minimizes sum of weights
CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 17
Facts About MSTs
There can be many spanning trees of
a graph
In fact, there can be many minimum
spanning trees of a graph
But if every edge has a unique
weight, then there is a unique MST

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 18

Uniqueness of MST
Suppose in contradiction there are 2 MSTs, M1 and M2.

M1

4 M2
8
edges in
12 7 neither
Let e be edge with minimum weight that is in one MST
but not the other (e.g., orange or blue but not both)
in the example it is the edge with weight 4
WLOG, assume e is in M1 (e.g., the orange MST)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 19

 Uniqueness of MST
If e is added to M2 (e.g., the blue MST), a cycle is formed.

3 M1

4 5 M2
8
edges in
12 7 neither
Let e' be an edge in the cycle that is not in M1
in the example, the only possibility for e' is the edge with weight 7,
since the edges with weights 3 and 5 are in M1 (the orange MST)
By choice of e, weight of e must be > weight of e
in the example, 7 > 4

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 20

Uniqueness of MST
Replacing e with e' in M2 creates a new MST M3 whose
weight is less than that of M2
in the example, replace edge with weight 7 in blue MST by edge
with weight 4

3
M3
8 4 5
edges not
12 7 in M3
Result is a new spanning tree, M3, whose weight is less
than that of M2!

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 21

Generic MST Algorithm
input: weighted undirected graph
G = (V,E,w)
T := empty set
while T is not yet a spanning tree of G
find an edge e in E s.t. T U {e} is a
subgraph of some MST of G
add e to T
return T (as MST of G)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 22

Kruskal's MST algorithm
16
5 4 11
12
7
3 14
6 9 2
10 8
15
17
13 18
consider the edges in increasing order of weight,
add in an edge iff it does not cause a cycle

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 23

Kruskal's Algorithm as a
Special Case of Generic
Algorithm
Consider edges in increasing order of
weight
Add the next edge iff it doesn't cause
a cycle
At any point, T is a forest (set of
trees); eventually T is a single tree

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 24

Why is Kruskal's Greedy?
Algorithm manages a set of edges s.t.
these edges are a subset of some MST
At each iteration:
choose an edge so that the MST-subset property
remains true
subproblem left is to do the same with the
remaining edges
Always try to add cheapest available edge
that will not violate the tree property
locally optimal choice

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 25

Correctness of Kruskal's Alg.
Let e1, e2, , en-1 be sequence of
edges chosen
Clearly they form a spanning tree
Suppose it is not minimum weight
Let ei be the edge where the
algorithm goes wrong
{e1,,ei-1} is part of some MST M
but {e1,,ei} is not part of any MST

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 26

Correctness of Kruskal's Alg.
M: ei, forms a cycle in M

wt(e*) > wt(ei)

replacing e* w/ ei forms
e* :
min wt. edge a spanning tree with
in cycle not in smaller weight than M,
e1 to ei-1 contradiction!

gray edges are part of MST M, which contains e1 to ei-1,

but not ei

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 27

Note on Correctness Proof
Argument on previous slide works for
case when every edge has a unique
weight
Algorithm also works when edge
weights are not necessarily unique
Modify proof on previous slide:
contradiction is reached to assumption
that ei is not part of any MST

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 28

Implementing Kruskal's Alg.
Sort edges by weight
efficient algorithms known
How to test quickly if adding in the
next edge would cause a cycle?
use disjoint set data structure!

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 29

Running Time of Kruskal's
Algorithm
|V| Make-Sets, one per node
2|E| Find-Sets, two per edge
|V| - 1 Unions, since spanning tree has |V| - 1
edges in it
So sequence of O(E) operations, |V| of which
are Make-Sets
Time for Disjoint Sets ops is O(E log*V)
Dominated by time to sort the edges, which is
O(E log E) = O(E log V).

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 30

Another Greedy MST Alg.
Kruskal's algorithm maintains a forest
that grows until it forms a spanning
tree
Alternative idea is keep just one tree
and grow it until it spans all the nodes
Prim's algorithm
At each iteration, choose the minimum
weight outgoing edge to add
greedy!

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 31

Idea of Prim's Algorithm
Instead of growing the MST as possibly
multiple trees that eventually all merge,
grow the MST from a single vertex, so
that there is only one tree at any point.
Also a special case of the generic
algorithm: at each step, add the
minimum weight edge that goes out
from the tree constructed so far.

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 32

Prim's Algorithm
input: weighted undirected graph G = (V,E,w)
T := empty set
S := {any vertex in V}
while |T| < |V| - 1 do
let (u,v) be a min wt. outgoing edge (u in S, v not in S)
add (u,v) to T
add v to S
return (S,T) (as MST of G)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 33

Prim's Algorithm Example
8 7
b c d
4 2 9

a 11 i 4 e
14
7 6
8 10
h g f
1 2

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 34

Correctness of Prim's
Algorithm
Let Ti be the tree represented by (S,T)
at the end of iteration i.
Show by induction on i that Ti is a
subtree of some MST of G.
Basis: i = 0 (before first iteration). T0
contains just a single vertex, and thus
is a subtree of every MST of G.

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 35

Correctness of Prim's
Algorithm
Induction: Assume Ti is a subtree of
some MST M. We must show Ti+1 is a
subtree of some MST.
Let (u,v) be the edge added in
iteration i+1.
Case 1: (u,v) is in M.
Ti u v Then Ti+1 is also a
Ti+1 subtree of M.

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 36

Correctness of Prim's
Algorithm
Case 2: (u,v) is not in M.
There is a path P in M from u to v, since M
spans G.
Let (x,y) be the first edge in P with one
endpoint in Ti and the other not in Ti.
y
P
x
Ti
u v

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 37

Correctness of Prim's
Algorithm
Let M' = M - {(x,y)} U {(u,v)}
M' is also a spanning tree of G.
w(M') = w(M) - w(x,y) + w(u,v) w(M)
since (u,v) is min wt outgoing edge
So M' is also an MST and y
Ti+1 is a subtree of M' x
Ti
u v
Ti+1

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 38

Implementing Prim's
Algorithm
How do we find minimum weight
outgoing edge?
First cut: scan all adjacency lists at
each iteration.
Results in O(VE) time.
Try to do better.

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 39

Implementing Prim's
Algorithm
Idea: have each vertex not yet in the
tree keep track of its best (cheapest)
edge to the tree constructed so far.
To find min wt. outgoing edge, find
minimum among these values
use a priority queue to store the best edge
info (insert and extract-min operations)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 40

Implementing Prim's
Algorithm
When a vertex v is added to T, some
other vertices might have their best
edges affected, but only neighbors of
v
add decrease-key operation
v's best edge to T to the priority
i
check if this edge is cheaper
queue
Ti for w
v
x u Ti+1 w
x's best edge to Ti
w's best edge to Ti

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 41

Details on Prim's Algorithm
Associate with each vertex v two fields:
best-wt[v] : if v is not yet in the tree, then
it holds the min. wt. of all edges from v to
a vertex in the tree. Initially infinity.
best-node[v] : if v is not yet in the tree,
then it holds the name of the vertex
(node) u in the tree s.t. w(v,u) is v's best-
wt. Initially nil.

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 42

Details on Prim's Algorithm
input: G = (V,E,w)
// initialization
initialize priority queue Q to contain all
vertices, using best-wt values as keys
let v0 be any vertex in V
decrease-key(Q,v0,0)

// last line means change best-wt[v0] to 0 and

adjust Q accordingly

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 43

Details on Prim's Algorithm
while Q is not empty do
u := extract-min(Q) // vertex w/ smallest
best-wt
if u is not v0 then add (u,best-node[u]) to T
for each neighbor v of u do
if v is in Q and w(u,v) < best-wt[v] then
best-node[v] := u
decrease-key(Q,v,w(u,v))
return (V,T) // as MST of G

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 44

Running Time of Prim's
Algorithm
Depends on priority queue implementation. Let
Tins be time for insert
Tdec be time for decrease-key
Tex be time for extract-min

Then we have
|V| inserts and one decrease-key in the
initialization: O(VTins+Tdec)
|V| iterations of while
one extract-min per iteration: O(VTex) total

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 45

Running Time of Prim's
Algorithm
Each iteration of while includes a for
loop.
Number of iterations of for loop varies,
depending on how many neighbors the
current vertex has
Total number of iterations of for loop is
O(E).
Each iteration of for loop:
one decrease key, so O(ETdec) total

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 46

Running Time of Prim's
Algorithm
O(V(Tins + Tex) + ETdec)
If priority queue is implemented with
a binary heap, then
Tins = Tex = Tdec = O(log V)
total time is O(E log V)
(Think about how to implement
decrease-key in O(log V) time.)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 47

Shortest Paths in a Graph
Weve already seen one single-source
shortest path algorithm
Bellman-Ford algorithm
based on dynamic programming
Now lets review a greedy one:
Dijkstras algorithm

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 48

Dijkstra's SSSP Algorithm
Assumes all edge weights are nonnegative
Similar to Prim's MST algorithm
Start with source vertex s and iteratively
construct a tree rooted at s
Each vertex keeps track of tree vertex that
provides cheapest path from s (not just
cheapest path from any tree vertex)
At each iteration, include the vertex whose
cheapest path from s is the overall cheapest

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 49

Prim's vs. Dijkstra's

4 4

5 1 5 1
s s
6 6
Prim's Dijkstra's
MST SSSP

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 50

Implementing Dijkstra's Alg.
How can each vertex u keep track of its best
path from s?
Keep an estimate, d[u], of shortest path
distance from s to u
Use d as a key in a priority queue
When u is added to the tree, check each of
u's neighbors v to see if u provides v with a
cheaper path from s:
compare d[v] to d[u] + w(u,v)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 51

Dijkstra's Algorithm
input: G = (V,E,w) and source vertex
s
// initialization
d[s] := 0
d[v] := infinity for all other vertices v
initialize priority queue Q to contain
all vertices using d values as keys

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 52

Dijkstra's Algorithm
while Q is not empty do
u := extract-min(Q)

for each neighbor v of u do

if d[u] + w(u,v) < d[v] then

d[v] := d[u] + w(u,v)

decrease-key(Q,v,d[v])
parent(v) := u

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 53

Dijkstra's Algorithm
Example
iteration
2
a b 0 1 2 3 4 5
12 8 Q abcd bcde cde de d
10 6 c 3 4 9 e
d[a 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 ]
d e
4 d[b 2 2 2 2 2
]
source is vertex a d[c] 12 10 10 10 10
d[d 16 13 13
]
d[e 11 11 11 11
]CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 54
Correctness of Dijkstra's
Alg.
Let Ti be the tree constructed after i-th iteration
of while loop:
vertices not in Q
edges indicated by parent variables
Show by induction on i that the path in Ti from
s to u is a shortest path and has distance d[u],
for all u in Ti (i.e., show that Ti is a correct
shortest path tree).
Basis: i = 1. s is the only vertex in T1 and d[s] =
0.

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 55

Correctness of Dijkstra's
Alg.
Induction: Assume Ti is a correct shortest path
tree. Show that Ti+1 is a correct shortest path tree.
Let u be the vertex added in iteration i.
Let x = parent(u).

Need to show
Ti Ti+1 path in Ti+1 from
s x u s to u is a
shortest path,
and has distance
d[u]
CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 56
Correctness of Dijkstra's Alg
P, path in Ti+1
Ti Ti+1
s from s to u
x u
a P', another
path from s to u
b
(a,b) is first edge in P' that
leaves Ti

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 57

Correctness of Dijkstra's Alg
Let P1 be part of P' before (a,b). Ti P Ti+1
s
x u
Let P2 be part of P' after (a,b).
a
w(P') = w(P1) + w(a,b) + w(P2)
b
w(P1) + w(a,b) (nonneg wts) P'

w(s->a path in Ti) + w(a,b) (inductive hypothesis)

w(s->x path in Ti) + w(x,u) (alg chose u in iteration i
and
d-values are accurate, by inductive
hypothesis)
= w(P).
CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 58
So P is a shortest path, and d[u] is accurate after iteration
Running Time of Dijkstra's
Alg.
initialization: insert each vertex once
O(V Tins)
O(V) iterations of while loop
one extract-min per iteration => O(V Tex)
for loop inside while loop has variable number of
iterations
For loop has O(E) iterations total
one decrease-key per iteration => O(E Tdec)
Total is O(V (Tins + Tex) + E Tdec)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 59

Using Different Heap
Implementations
O(V(Tins + Tex) + ETdec)
If priority queue is implemented with a
binary heap, then
Tins = Tex = Tdec = O(log V)
total time is O(E log V)
There are fancier implementations of the
priority queue, such as Fibonacci heap:
Tins = O(1), Tex = O(log V), Tdec = O(1) (amortized)
total time is O(V log V + E)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 60

Using Simpler Heap
Implementations
O(V(Tins + Tex) + ETdec)
If graph is dense, so that |E| = (V2), then it
doesn't help to make Tins and Tex to be at
most O(V).
Instead, focus on making T dec be small, say
constant.
Implement priority queue with an unsorted
array:
Tins = O(1), Tex = O(V), Tdec = O(1)
total is O(V2)

CSCE 411H, Spring 2013: Set 8 61