A constructive heuristic is a type of
heuristic
A heuristic or heuristic technique (''problem solving'', '' mental shortcut'', ''rule of thumb'') is any approach to problem solving that employs a pragmatic method that is not fully optimized, perfected, or rationalized, but is nevertheless ...
method which starts with an empty solution and repeatedly extends the current solution until a complete solution is obtained. It differs from local search heuristics which start with a complete solution and then try to improve the current solution further via local moves. Examples of some famous problems that are solved using constructive heuristics are the
flow shop scheduling, the
vehicle routing problem
The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a combinatorial optimization and integer programming problem which asks "What is the optimal set of routes for a fleet of vehicles to traverse in order to deliver to a given set of customers?" It generalises ...
and the open shop problem.
See also
*
Evolutionary algorithms
Evolutionary algorithms (EA) reproduce essential elements of the biological evolution in a computer algorithm in order to solve "difficult" problems, at least Approximation, approximately, for which no exact or satisfactory solution methods are k ...
*
Genetic algorithms
In computer science and operations research, a genetic algorithm (GA) is a metaheuristic inspired by the process of natural selection that belongs to the larger class of evolutionary algorithms (EA). Genetic algorithms are commonly used to g ...
*
Local search (optimization)
In computer science, local search is a heuristic method for solving computationally hard Mathematical optimization, optimization problems. Local search can be used on problems that can be formulated as finding a solution that maximizes a criterio ...
*
Metaheuristics
In computer science and mathematical optimization, a metaheuristic is a higher-level procedure or heuristic designed to find, generate, tune, or select a heuristic (partial search algorithm) that may provide a sufficiently good solution to an opt ...
References
{{Reflist
Optimization algorithms and methods
Heuristics