Computing Shortest Route With PHP

[phdphd]

Hi All,

I have found an interesting source about computing the shortest route given any given number of points, here.

However it takes too long above 7 points (around 4 seconds with 7 points, more than 30 sec with 8 points).

Does anyone know a quicker solution ?

Thanks!

 

[mac_gyver]

for that particular script, you can cache the distance calculations and there are few other micro-optimizations you can perform inside the loops and in the distance function (this takes ~30 seconds for 9 points, and ~1.7 seconds for 8 points on my development system, 8 point was ~3.5 seconds using the unmodified code) -

<?php

class TSP {

    private $locations     = array();        // all locations to visit
    private $longitudes = array();
    private $latitudes     = array();
    private $shortest_route = array();    // holds the shortest route
    private $shortest_routes = array();    // any matching shortest routes
    private $shortest_distance = 0;        // holds the shortest distance
    private $all_routes = array();        // array of all the possible combinations and there distances

    // add a location
    public function add($name,$longitude,$latitude){
        $this->locations[$name] = array('longitude'=>$longitude,'latitude'=>$latitude);
    }

    //LAT    LON     Location  - added method for parameter order
    public function _add($latitude,$longitude,$name){
        $this->locations[$name] = array('longitude'=>$longitude,'latitude'=>$latitude);
    }

    // the main function that des the calculations
    public function compute(){
        $locations = $this->locations;

        foreach ($locations as $location=>$coords){
            $this->longitudes[$location] = $coords['longitude'];
            $this->latitudes[$location] = $coords['latitude'];
        }
        $locations = array_keys($locations);

        $this->all_routes = $this->array_permutations($locations);

        $cache = array();
        foreach ($this->all_routes as $key=>$perms){
            $i=0;
            $total = 0;
            $n = count($this->locations)-1;
            foreach ($perms as $value){
                if ($i<$n){
                    $source = $perms[$i];
                    $dest = $perms[$i+1];
                    if(isset($cache[$source][$dest])){
                        $dist = $cache[$source][$dest];
                    } elseif (isset($cache[$dest][$source])) {
                        $dist = $cache[$dest][$source];
                    } else {
                        $dist = $this->distance($this->latitudes[$source],$this->longitudes[$source],$this->latitudes[$dest],$this->longitudes[$dest]);
                        $cache[$source][$dest] = $dist;
                    }
                    $total+=$dist;
                }
                $i++;
            }
            $this->all_routes[$key]['distance'] = $total;
            if ($total<$this->shortest_distance || $this->shortest_distance ==0){
                $this->shortest_distance = $total;
                $this->shortest_route = $perms;
                $this->shortest_routes = array();
            }
            if ($total == $this->shortest_distance){
                $this->shortest_routes[] = $perms;
            }
        }
    }

    // work out the distance between 2 longitude and latitude pairs
    function distance($lat1, $lon1, $lat2, $lon2) {
        if ($lat1 == $lat2 && $lon1 == $lon2) return 0;
        $theta = $lon1 - $lon2;
        $r_l1 = deg2rad($lat1);
        $r_l2 = deg2rad($lat2);
        $dist = sin($r_l1) * sin($r_l2) +  cos($r_l1) * cos($r_l2) * cos(deg2rad($theta));
        $dist = acos($dist);
        $dist = rad2deg($dist);
        $miles = $dist * 69.09;
        return $miles;
    }

    // work out all the possible different permutations of an array of data
    private function array_permutations($items, $perms = array()){
        static $all_permutations;
        if (empty($items)) {
            $all_permutations[] = $perms;
        }  else {
            for ($i = count($items) - 1; $i >= 0; --$i) {
                $newitems = $items;
                $newperms = $perms;
                list($foo) = array_splice($newitems, $i, 1);
                array_unshift($newperms, $foo);
                $this->array_permutations($newitems, $newperms);
            }
        }
        return $all_permutations;
    }

    // return an array of the shortest possible route
    public function shortest_route(){
        return $this->shortest_route;
    }

    // returns an array of any routes that are exactly the same distance as the shortest (ie the shortest backwards normally)
    public function matching_shortest_routes(){
        return $this->shortest_routes;
    }

    // the shortest possible distance to travel
    public function shortest_distance(){
        return $this->shortest_distance;
    }

    // returns an array of all the possible routes
    public function routes(){
        return $this->all_routes;
    }
}

$s = microtime(true);

$tsp = new TSP;

//$tsp->_add(39.25,  106.30,  'Leadville,CO'); // 9th point (~30 seconds)
$tsp->_add(39.18,  103.70,  'Limon,CO');
$tsp->_add(38.50,  107.88,  'Montrose,CO');
$tsp->_add(38.28,  104.52,  'Pueblo,CO');
$tsp->_add(39.53,  107.80,  'Rifle,CO');
$tsp->_add(38.53,  106.05,  'Salida,CO');
$tsp->_add(40.48,  106.82,  'Steamboat Sp,CO');
$tsp->_add(37.25,  104.33,  'Trinidad,CO');
$tsp->_add(40.00,  105.87,  'Winter Park,CO');

$tsp->compute();

$e = microtime(true);
$t = $e - $s;
echo "Time: $t<br>";

echo "<pre>";
echo 'Shortest Distance: '.$tsp->shortest_distance();
echo '<br />Shortest Route: ';
print_r($tsp->shortest_route());
echo '<br />Num Routes: '.count($tsp->routes());
echo '<br />Matching shortest Routes: ';
print_r($tsp->matching_shortest_routes());
//echo '<br />All Routes: ';
//print_r($tsp->routes());

---

 

having the distance calculation between all the pairs of points (the $cache contents in the above) brings up the possibility of using the following algorithm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijkstra%27s_algorithm

 

you could just produce all the pairs of points (not all the possible permutations of all the points) and calculate the distance between each pair of points, then use the Dijkstra algorithm (i found a handful of php implementations while searching) on those distances.

[phdphd]

Thanks mac gyver!