Tug of War Algorithm

karthikeya Boyini

Answered on 10th Jul, 2018

In this problem a set of integers are given, we have to break them into two parts, such that the difference of the sum of two subsets is minimum as possible. So our target is to divide two groups of nearly equal strength to participate in the Tug of war game.

If the size of subset n is even, it must be divided into n/2, but for the odd value of n, then the size of one subset must be (n-1)/2, and size of another subset must be (n+1)/2.

Input and Output

Input:
A set of different weights.
{23, 45, -34, 12, 0, 98, -99, 4, 189, -1, 4}
Output:
The left and right subset to distribute the weights to make the difference minimum.
Left: {45, -34, 12, 98, -1}
Right: {23, 0, -99, 4, 189, 4}

Algorithm

tugOfWar(weight, n, curr, select, sol, diff, sum, total, pos)

Input: Set of given weights, number of weights, current list, number of selected items, the difference between two subset sum, the sum of all items, total in the subset, position of the selected element.

Output: Solution set for selected for left and right subsets.

Begin
   if pos = n, then     //when all elements are taken
      return
   if (n/2-select) > (n - pos), then
      return
   tugOfWar(weight, n, curr, select, sol, diff, sum, total, pos+1)
   select := select + 1
   total := total + weight[pos]
   curr[pos] := true      //when item at pos is taken

   if select = n/2, then
      if difference of (sum/2 and total) < diff, then
         diff := difference of (sum/2 and total)
         for i := 0 to n, do
            sol[i] := curr[i]
         done
   else
      tugOfWar(weight, n, curr, select, sol, diff, sum, total, pos+1)
   curr[pos] := false    //remove current element if not properly done
End

Source Code (C++)

#include <iostream>
#include<cmath>
using namespace std;

void tugOfWar(int* weight, int n, bool curr[], int select, bool sol[], int &diff, int sum, int total, int pos) {
   if (pos == n)     //when the pos is covered all weights
      return;
   if ((n/2 - select) > (n - pos))    //left elements must be bigger than required result
      return;
   tugOfWar(weight, n, curr, select, sol, diff, sum, total, pos+1);

   select++;
   total += weight[pos];
   curr[pos] = true;      //add current element to the solution

   if (select == n/2) {       //when solution is formed
      if (abs(sum/2 - total) < diff) {     //check whether it is better solution or not
         diff = abs(sum/2 - total);
         for (int i = 0; i<n; i++)
            sol[i] = curr[i];
      }
   } else {
      tugOfWar(weight, n, curr, select, sol, diff, sum, total, pos+1);
   }
   curr[pos] = false;    //when not properly done, remove current element
}

void findSolution(int *arr, int n) {
   bool* curr = new bool[n];
   bool* soln = new bool[n];
   int diff = INT_MAX;       //set minimum difference to infinity initially
   int sum = 0;

   for (int i=0; i<n; i++) {
      sum += arr[i];                  //find the sum of all elements
      curr[i] =  soln[i] = false;     //make all elements as false
   }

   tugOfWar(arr, n, curr, 0, soln, diff, sum, 0, 0);
   cout << "Left: ";

   for (int i=0; i<n; i++)
      if (soln[i] == true)
         cout << arr[i] << " ";
   cout << endl << "Right: ";

   for (int i=0; i<n; i++)
      if (soln[i] == false)
         cout << arr[i] << " ";
}

int main() {
   int weight[] = {23, 45, -34, 12, 0, 98, -99, 4, 189, -1, 4};
   int n = 11;
   findSolution(weight, n);
}

Output

Left: 45 -34 12 98 -1
Right: 23 0 -99 4 189 4