Question

I had some troubles implementing Lawler’s algorithm but thanks to SO and a bounty of 200 reputation I finally managed to write a working implementation:

Lawler's Algorithm Implementation Assistance

I feel like I’m using too many variables and loops there though so I am trying to refactor the code. It should be simpler and shorter yet remain readable.

Does it make sense to make a class for this? Any advice or even help with refactoring this piece of code is welcomed:

<?php

/*
 * @name Lawler's algorithm PHP implementation
 * @desc This algorithm calculates an optimal schedule of jobs to be
 *       processed on a single machine (in reversed order) while taking
 *       into consideration any precedence constraints.
 * @author Richard Knop
 *
 */

$jobs = array(1 => array('processingTime' => 2,
                         'dueDate'        => 3),
              2 => array('processingTime' => 3,
                         'dueDate'        => 15),
              3 => array('processingTime' => 4,
                         'dueDate'        => 9),
              4 => array('processingTime' => 3,
                         'dueDate'        => 16),
              5 => array('processingTime' => 5,
                         'dueDate'        => 12),
              6 => array('processingTime' => 7,
                         'dueDate'        => 20),
              7 => array('processingTime' => 5,
                         'dueDate'        => 27),
              8 => array('processingTime' => 6,
                         'dueDate'        => 40),
              9 => array('processingTime' => 3,
                         'dueDate'        => 10));
// precedence constrainst, i.e job 2 must be completed before job 5 etc
$successors = array(2=>5,
                    7=>9);
$n = count($jobs);
$optimalSchedule = array();

for ($i = $n; $i >= 1; $i--) {

    // jobs not required to precede any other job
    $arr = array();
    foreach ($jobs as $k => $v) {

        if (false === array_key_exists($k, $successors)) {
            $arr[] = $k;
        }

    }

    // calculate total processing time
    $totalProcessingTime = 0;
    foreach ($jobs as $k => $v) {
        if (true === array_key_exists($k, $arr)) {
            $totalProcessingTime += $v['processingTime'];
        }
    }

    // find the job that will go to the end of the optimal schedule array
    $min = null;
    $x = 0;
    $lastKey = null;
    foreach($arr as $k) {
        $x = $totalProcessingTime - $jobs[$k]['dueDate'];
        if (null === $min || $x < $min) {
            $min = $x;
            $lastKey = $k;
        }
    }

    // add the job to the optimal schedule array
    $optimalSchedule[$lastKey] = $jobs[$lastKey];
    // remove job from the jobs array
    unset($jobs[$lastKey]);
    // remove precedence constraint from the successors array if needed
    if (true === in_array($lastKey, $successors)) {
        foreach ($successors as $k => $v) {
            if ($lastKey === $v) {
                unset($successors[$k]);
            }
        }
    }

}

// reverse the optimal schedule array and preserve keys
$optimalSchedule = array_reverse($optimalSchedule, true);

// add tardiness to the array
$i = 0;
foreach ($optimalSchedule as $k => $v) {
    $optimalSchedule[$k]['tardiness'] = 0;
    $j = 0;
    foreach ($optimalSchedule as $k2 => $v2) {
        if ($j <= $i) {
            $optimalSchedule[$k]['tardiness'] += $v2['processingTime'];
        }
        $j++;
    }
    $i++;
}

echo '<pre>';
print_r($optimalSchedule);
echo '</pre>';

Answer 1

I would make it a class. I find it easier to refactor an algorithm when all necessary variables are encapsulated as class members, rather than remembering what values I have to pass in and out every time I extract a method.

You should set your inputs to the algorithm in the constructor and then have a generic execute method. This would allow you to conform to both the command and strategy patterns more easily.

Make all your loop and conditional bodies into individual protected functions. With appropriate naming, that will increase the readability immensely, and make it much easier to alter the algorithm through inheritance.