Re: [OT] simple algorithm for assigning students to class sections

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Re^2: [OT] simple algorithm for assigning students to class sections by hossman (Prior) on Nov 30, 2004 at 19:04 UTC
Can it be assumed that they have eual distaste for all unrated sections? Correct. They are supposed to rank all of the sections they are capable of attending. If they can't attend it, they don't rank it ... and anything they can't attend is equally worthless Can a student be in more than one section? no. (sorry, i should have considered that varient) Do all sections have to have students? ... Do the numbers of places per section, total to the number of students? Excellent question: No, and "not neccessarily" I initially tried to simplify the description of the problem a little bit. A previous placement process has already partially filled these sections, the data I'll be starting with is the maximum number of additional students each section can accomidate and the list of students not yet placed in a section with their prefrences for a section. It's completely possible that a section might allready be full (ie: have 0 room) and I believe it's possible that there may be more total students then their are spaces left. What are the orders of magnitude you are dealing with? I believe I need to deal with roughly 750 students, 10-15 sections, and anywhere from 0 to 20 spots in each section. I'm not adverse to using a brute force approach and letting it churn for a few hours. I'm just not sure what the best brute force approach is, or how to decide when one solution is "better" then another.	[reply]
Re^3: [OT] simple algorithm for assigning students to class sections by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Dec 01, 2004 at 09:27 UTC
Have a play with this and see how you get on. Update: Corrected error in output code to display `[EMPTY]` if a course ends up with no students. Uncommented and improved format of output. #! perl -slw use strict; use List::Util qw[ shuffle max min reduce ]; our $SECTIONS \|\|= 15; our $STUDENTS \|\|= 50; our $MAXSECT \|\|= 20; #srand( 1 ); ## Gen some test data my %sections = map{; sprintf( "Section_%02d", $_ ) => {available => 0 } } 0 .. $SECTIONS - 1; my @sections = sort keys %sections; my $n = $STUDENTS; $sections{ $sections[ rand @sections ] }{ available }++ while $n--; printf "Sections: %d \n\t%s\n", scalar keys %sections, join "\n\t", map{ join " $_ =>", %{ $sections{ $_ } } } @sections; my %students = map{ my $prefs = 1+int( rand $SECTIONS ); sprintf( "Student_%02d", $_ ) => [ ( shuffle( 0 .. $SECTIONS-1 ) )[ 0 .. $prefs-1 ] ] } 0 .. $STUDENTS-1; my @students = sort keys %students; printf "Students: %d [%s\n]\n", scalar keys %students, join ', ', map{ "\n\t$_\t[ @{ $students{ $_ } } ]" } @students; my $maxChoices = max( map{ scalar @{ $students{ $_ } } } @students ); ## for my $choice ( 0 .. $maxChoices ) { my $byChoice = reduce{ push @{ $a }, [] if defined $a->[ -1 ][ 0 ] and ( $students{ $students[ $a->[ -1 ][ 0 ] ] }[ $choice ] +\|\|1e99 ) != ( $students{ $students[ $b ] }[ $choice ] +\|\|1e99 ) ; push @{ $a->[ -1 ] }, $b; $a } [[]], sort{ ($students{ $students[ $a ] }[ $choice ]\|\|99999) <=> ($students{ $students[ $b ] }[ $choice ]\|\|99999) ## By nth cho +ice or @{ $students{ $students[ $a ] } } <=> @{ $students{ $students[ $b ] } } ## or number of +choices } 0 .. $#students; my @allocated; for my $chose ( @$byChoice ) { next unless defined $students{ $students[ $chose->[ -1 ] ] }[ +$choice ]; my $section = sprintf "Section_%02d", $students{ $students[ $chose->[ -1 ] ] }[ $choice ]; # print "Sect:$section; avail: $sections{ $section }{ available + }", "\t[@{[ sort {$a<=>$b} @$chose ]}][@{[ sort {$a<=>$b} @alloc +ated ]}]"; if( @$chose <= $sections{ $section }{ available } ) { push @{ $sections{ $section }{ allocated } }, @students[ @ +$chose ]; $sections{ $section }{ available } -= @$chose; push @allocated, @$chose; # print "Alloc1: \t\t\t[@{[ sort {$a<=>$b} @$chose ]}]", "[@{[ sort {$a<=>$b} @allocated ]}]"; next; } my @lastChoice = grep{ $#{ $students{ $students[ $_ ] } } == $choice } @$chose; # print "lastchoice: \t\t[@lastChoice]"; if( @lastChoice and @lastChoice <= $sections{ $section }{ available } ) { push @{ $sections{ $section }{ allocated } }, @students[ @lastChoice ]; $sections{ $section }{ available } -= @lastChoice; @{ $chose } = grep{ my $allocated = $_; !grep{ $_ == $allocated } @lastChoice } @$chose; push @allocated, @lastChoice; # print "Alloc2: \t\t\t[@{[ sort {$a<=>$b} @$chose ]}]", "[@{[ sort {$a<=>$b} @allocated ]}]"; } if( @$chose and $sections{ $section }{ available } ) { my @random = ( shuffle( @$chose ) ) [ 0 .. $sections{$section}{available} -1 ]; push @{ $sections{ $section }{ allocated } }, @students[ @ +random ]; $sections{ $section }{ available } = 0; @{ $chose } = grep{ my $allocated = $_; !grep{ $_ == $allocated } @random } @$chose; push @allocated, @random; # print "Alloc3: \t\t\t[@{[ sort {$a<=>$b} @$chose ]}]", "[@{[ sort {$a<=>$b} @allocated ]}]"; } } delete @students[ @allocated ]; @students = grep{ defined } @students; # print "left: @students"; last unless @students; } print "$_($sections{ $_ }{ available }) => ", ref $sections{ $_ }{ all +ocated } ? "[ @{ $sections{ $_ }{ allocated } } ]" : "[EMPTY]" for sort keys %sections; print "\nUnallocated; [@students]"; [download] Output: [16:10:52.01] P:\test>411129 -STUDENTS=50 -SECTIONS=15 Sections: 15 available Section_00 =>2 available Section_01 =>3 available Section_02 =>1 available Section_03 =>3 available Section_04 =>9 available Section_05 =>3 available Section_06 =>3 available Section_07 =>5 available Section_08 =>3 available Section_09 =>2 available Section_10 =>6 available Section_11 =>1 available Section_12 =>2 available Section_13 =>5 available Section_14 =>2 Students: 50 [ Student_00 [ 6 14 8 10 1 3 2 13 5 12 4 ], Student_01 [ 6 0 7 13 4 9 14 1 3 2 8 ], Student_02 [ 11 10 9 ], Student_03 [ 13 14 4 2 12 3 8 11 5 7 9 6 1 0 ], Student_04 [ 11 3 9 ], Student_05 [ 4 13 0 1 9 11 6 8 7 14 5 12 3 ], Student_06 [ 5 13 9 10 7 0 ], Student_07 [ 0 9 11 6 5 12 ], Student_08 [ 5 ], Student_09 [ 4 ], Student_10 [ 3 6 1 0 12 8 13 14 5 10 9 4 2 11 7 ], Student_11 [ 5 14 ], Student_12 [ 0 11 2 6 10 8 9 1 7 12 5 14 3 ], Student_13 [ 4 2 9 14 3 7 12 ], Student_14 [ 4 3 2 6 13 0 14 12 7 9 10 5 ], Student_15 [ 2 8 10 13 12 7 3 0 6 ], Student_16 [ 6 11 1 3 7 2 5 0 12 10 ], Student_17 [ 6 3 13 10 7 0 5 9 14 1 11 2 ], Student_18 [ 0 7 11 12 9 1 13 4 3 14 6 8 5 2 10 ], Student_19 [ 14 9 13 12 3 2 7 1 10 8 4 5 ], Student_20 [ 0 13 8 3 4 6 11 1 12 10 9 5 7 14 2 ], Student_21 [ 6 0 ], Student_22 [ 4 6 12 2 7 1 3 ], Student_23 [ 0 ], Student_24 [ 2 9 1 13 5 0 12 3 11 8 4 7 10 6 ], Student_25 [ 9 6 11 12 ], Student_26 [ 13 7 8 10 12 11 4 ], Student_27 [ 9 11 8 10 13 ], Student_28 [ 14 0 4 8 10 9 13 3 6 2 5 7 12 1 11 ], Student_29 [ 3 10 0 8 4 ], Student_30 [ 2 5 14 13 12 1 10 0 7 8 4 9 3 ], Student_31 [ 3 ], Student_32 [ 1 14 0 9 ], Student_33 [ 2 3 8 13 4 12 5 10 7 6 0 14 1 11 ], Student_34 [ 7 12 9 11 13 10 1 2 14 8 5 6 3 ], Student_35 [ 6 11 ], Student_36 [ 1 4 8 11 ], Student_37 [ 12 13 1 11 0 ], Student_38 [ 0 7 14 5 13 ], Student_39 [ 14 6 2 11 0 12 4 3 5 8 13 10 7 9 1 ], Student_40 [ 13 0 14 4 1 8 10 6 9 11 12 2 5 7 3 ], Student_41 [ 9 0 13 ], Student_42 [ 3 2 5 11 8 13 10 14 4 ], Student_43 [ 1 3 2 13 8 10 4 11 0 ], Student_44 [ 0 7 ], Student_45 [ 8 9 12 10 4 6 2 11 13 0 ], Student_46 [ 8 3 6 0 4 ], Student_47 [ 7 5 4 9 13 ], Student_48 [ 8 1 7 14 4 6 11 3 10 ], Student_49 [ 6 0 5 13 12 8 ] ] Section_00(0) => [ Student_23 Student_44 ] Section_01(0) => [ Student_32 Student_36 Student_43 ] Section_02(0) => [ Student_15 ] Section_03(0) => [ Student_31 Student_29 Student_10 ] Section_04(2) => [ Student_09 Student_13 Student_22 Student_14 Student +_05 Student_39 Student_24 ] Section_05(0) => [ Student_08 Student_11 Student_06 ] Section_06(0) => [ Student_17 Student_49 Student_01 ] Section_07(0) => [ Student_47 Student_34 Student_38 Student_18 Student +_16 ] Section_08(0) => [ Student_46 Student_48 Student_45 ] Section_09(0) => [ Student_27 Student_41 ] Section_10(2) => [ Student_00 Student_12 Student_42 Student_30 ] Section_11(0) => [ Student_02 ] Section_12(0) => [ Student_37 Student_25 ] Section_13(0) => [ Student_26 Student_03 Student_40 Student_20 Student +_33 ] Section_14(0) => [ Student_19 Student_28 ] Unallocated; [Student_04 Student_07 Student_21 Student_35] [download] Examine what is said, not who speaks. "But you should never overestimate the ingenuity of the sceptics to come up with a counter-argument." -Myles Allen "Think for yourself!" - Abigail "Time is a poor substitute for thought"--theorbtwo "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham "Memory, processor, disk in that order on the hardware side. Algorithm, algorithm, algorithm on the code side." - tachyon	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: [OT] simple algorithm for assigning students to class sections by hossman (Prior) on Dec 05, 2004 at 02:10 UTC
Thanks for the post, Sorry for my late reply -- works been busy, and my "client" (aka: my girlfriend) has been too busy grading finals to discuss how she really wants it to work, and what kind of "scoring" she wants to apply to permutations. Your approach is really cool (that reduce call is psycho by the way) but it doesn't seem to do very well in some simple cases. By iterating over "0 .. $maxChoices" at the core, and assigning people to sections as early as it can, it produces a lot of solutions in which people are left out of sections, even if another solution exists in which they do get into a section at the expense of someone else getting their second choice instead of their first. (It's definitely important to pay attention to people's prefrences, but a solution in which everyone gets their last choice is definitely better then a solution in which 90% of people get their first choice, and the other 10% don't get anything)... Read more... (2 kB) Unfortunately, I don't see an easy way to fix this. A "try it several times and pick the best run" won't do much good, since randomness isn't even a factor in these problem cases (the "Alloc1" and "Alloc2" allocations are deterministic) Thoughts?	[reply]
Re^5: [OT] simple algorithm for assigning students to class sections by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Dec 05, 2004 at 07:53 UTC
Re^6: [OT] simple algorithm for assigning students to class sections by hossman (Prior) on Dec 07, 2004 at 07:39 UTC
Re^3: [OT] simple algorithm for assigning students to class sections by Zero_Flop (Pilgrim) on Dec 01, 2004 at 05:24 UTC
15X20 = 300 spots, for 750 students. If that is the case, a random lottery is your only option to make it fair.	[reply]


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