Re: Algorithm Help

m 1375 GLENDALE MILFORD RD., CINCINNATI, OH 45215 On Oct 1, 2013, at 3:14 PM, Ashley Sheridan <ash@ashleysheridan.co.uk> wrote: > On Tue, 2013-10-01 at 15:09 -0400, Aziz Saleh wrote: > >> DB or flatfile? >> >> I would create a matrix of all kids crossed with every kid. Everytime a kid >> is put in a home with another kid, ++ that index. When dispatching kids, >> sort by index ASC. >> >> Aziz >> >> >> On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 3:01 PM, John Meyer <johnmeyer@pueblocomputing.com>wrote: >> >>> On 10/1/2013 12:51 PM, Floyd Resler wrote: >>> >>>> Here's my task: A group of kids is going to be staying with different >>>> host families throughout the next 8 months. The number of kids staying >>>> with a host family can range from 2 to 10. When deciding which kids should >>>> stay together at a host family, the idea is for the system to put together >>>> kids who have stayed with each other the least on past weekends. So, if a >>>> host family can keep 5 kids, then the group of 5 kids who have stayed >>>> together the least will be chosen. >>>> >>>> I can't think of an easy, quick way to accomplish this. I've tried >>>> various approaches that have resulted in a lot of coding and being very >>>> slow. My idea was to give each group of kids a score and the lowest score >>>> is the group that is selected. However, this approach wound of iterating >>>> through several arrays several times which was really slow. Does anyone >>>> have any ideas on this puzzle? >>>> >>>> Thanks! >>>> Floyd >>>> >>>> >>>> Whatever solution you're going with will probably involve a relational >>> database of some sort. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) >>> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php >>> >>> > > > This sounds remarkably like homework, which we can't help you with > unless you've got a specific problem that you're stuck with. > > Thanks, > Ash > http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk > > Oh, no, this is definitely not homework! :) Although it certainly seems like a homework question. This is a real world problem. I'm keeping track of which kids stay with which host families in the database. My initial approach was to start with kid 1 and see how many times the other kids have stayed with kid 1. The move on to kid 2, and so it. This gives me a score for pairs of kids. However, if say three kids are staying at a host family, what is the best way to determine which set of three kids have stayed together the least? Thanks! Floyd