(algorithmic technique)
Definition: An algorithm that usually, but not always, works or that gives nearly the right answer.
Specialization (... is a kind of me.)
move-to-front heuristic, Christofides algorithm, Monte Carlo algorithm.
See also metaheuristic, probabilistic algorithm, greedy algorithm.
Note: Some problems, such as the traveling salesman problem, may take far too long to compute an optimal solution. But some have good heuristics that are fast and find a solution no more than a few percent worse than the optimal.
Author: PEB
If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.
Entry modified 27 February 2004.
HTML page formatted Mon Feb 2 13:10:39 2015.
Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "heuristic", in
Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Vreda Pieterse and Paul E. Black, eds. 27 February 2004. (accessed TODAY)
Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/heuristic.html