Humans & Cannibals Problem
 

Was wondering how to code this in C :

There are 'H' Humans and 'C' Cannibals on the bank of
a river. They are to be transported from the left bank
of a river to the right bank ,using a boat.
The boat can take maximum of 2 persons.
At no point of time, a situation may arise, wherein:
No. Of Humans<No. Of Cannibals.
i.e., H=0 OR H>=C.


Obviously, it must involve Recursion, but I am not able to figure out how.
Its probably pretty simple, but none-the-less, give it a try.

Also, if possible, tell me is there any way to code it non-recursively.

Ciao,
Rajiv :)

Re: Humans & Cannibals Problem
 

It was posted in the wrong forum and I have moved it to the correct forum.

Regarding your problem there is a standard algo for such a solution to the problem. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~billw/cs...ndc/mandc.html will help you get the idea about the algo.

If not all almost every recursive problem has a non recursive solution specially standard algos.

Re: Humans & Cannibals Problem
 

Thx a lot, Shabbir.

Re: Humans & Cannibals Problem
 

My pleasure

A simple, yet consistent implementation
 

There's this friend of mine, who has coded this problem in 'C' (His net is down temporarily - so I got a soft copy of the prog), without adopting the above mentioned approach, infact he has used a very simple approach. Yet, it works.

If 'h' r the no. of Humans & 'c' the no. of cannibals entered as I/P (provided h>c, at the time of I/P), the program consistently gives the Solution in : 'h+c-1' steps.

can u xamine the code & tell me, is this also a valid implementation.

Ciao,
Rajiv :)

Re: Humans & Cannibals Problem
 

The logic used in the problem is quite simple and effective one. He has defined two functions
and
which are recursively used for initial condition of Humans & Cannibals are equal or not.

Then it recursivly decrease (Movement from one bank to other) the humans and cannibals depending on the case as to who in what number on the bank.

Enjoy coding.