It seems this must be a common scheduling problem, but I don't see the solution or even what to call the problem. It's like a topological sort, but different....
Given some dependencies, say
A -> B -> D -- that is, A must come before B, which must come before D
A -> C -> D
there might be multiple solutions to a topological sort:
A, B, C, D
and A, C, B, D
are both solutions.
I need an algorithm that returns this:
(A) -> (B,C) -> (D)
That is, do A, then all of B and C, then you can do D. All the ambiguities or don't-cares are grouped.
I think algorithms such as those at Topological Sort with Grouping won't correctly handle cases like the following.
A -> B -> C -> D -> E
A - - - > M - - - > E
For this, the algorithm should return
(A) -> (B, C, D, M) -> (E)
This
A -> B -> D -> F
A -> C -> E -> F
should return
(A) -> (B, D, C, E) -> (F)
While this
A -> B -> D -> F
A -> C -> E -> F
C -> D
B -> E
should return
(A) -> (B, C) -> (D, E) -> (F)
And this
A -> B -> D -> F
A -> C -> E -> F
A -> L -> M -> F
C -> D
C -> M
B -> E
B -> M
L -> D
L -> E
should return
(A) -> (B, C, L) -> (D, E, M) -> (F)
Is there a name and a conventional solution to this problem? (And do the algorithms posted at Topological Sort with Grouping correctly handle this?)
Edit to answer requests for more examples:
A->B->C
A->C
should return
(A) -> (B) -> (C). That would be a straight topological sort.
And
A->B->D
A->C->D
A->D
should return
(A) -> (B, C) -> (D)
And
A->B->C
A->C
A->D
should return
(A) -> (B,C,D)
Note: Topological Sorting for a graph is not possible if the graph is not a DAG. For example, a topological sorting of the following graph is “5 4 2 3 1 0”. There can be more than one topological sorting for a graph. Another topological sorting of the following graph is “4 5 2 3 1 0”.
In Topological Sort, the idea is to visit the parent node followed by the child node. If the given graph contains a cycle, then there is at least one node which is a parent as well as a child so this will break Topological Order.
Precisely, a topological sort is a graph traversal in which each node v is visited only after all its dependencies are visited. A topological ordering is possible if and only if the graph has no directed cycles, that is, if it is a directed acyclic graph (DAG).
Yes, you can do topological sorting using BFS.
Let G be the transitive closure of the graph. Let G' be the undirected graph that results from removing the orientation from G and taking the complement. The connected components of the G' are the sets you are looking for.
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