# Difference between revisions of "Eight step procedures"

Author: Eljona Pushaj, Diana Bogdanowich, Stephanie Keomany
Steward: Fengqi You

# Theory, Methodology, and/or Algorithmic Discussion

### Definition

To solve a problem using the 8-step procedure, one must follow the following steps:

Step 1: Specify the stages of the problem
• The stages of a dynamic programming problem can be defined as points where decisions are made. These are often denoted with the variable ${\displaystyle n}$.

Step 2: Specify the states for each stage
• The states of a problem are defined as the knowledge necessary to make a decision, or ${\displaystyle s}$. We set ${\displaystyle C}$ equal to the maximum value of ${\displaystyle s}$.

Step 3: Specify the allowable actions for each state in each stage
• This can be defined as:
o ${\displaystyle U_{n}(s)\,or\,j\,=\,0,1,...,min\left\{a[n],\left\lfloor {\frac {s}{w[n]}}\right\rfloor \right\}}$

Step 4: Describe the optimization function using an English-language description.
• In this sentence, we describe the optimization function for each state, or ${\displaystyle s}$, and each stage, or ${\displaystyle n}$. This can also be called ${\displaystyle f_{n}^{*}(s)}$

Step 5: Define the boundary conditions
• This helps create a starting point to finding a solution to the problem. First, we set ${\displaystyle f_{n+1}^{*}(s)=0}$ for all values of ${\displaystyle s}$. Here, we can note that ${\displaystyle s=0,...,C}$

Step 6: Define the recurrence relation
• During this step, we make an allowable decision involving ${\displaystyle j}$ items for the remaining capacity ${\displaystyle s}$ for items ${\displaystyle n}$. We can write this statement as:
o ${\displaystyle f_{n}^{*}(s)={\overset {max}{j=0,1,...,min\left\{a[n],\left\lfloor {\frac {s}{w[n]}}\right\rfloor \right\}}}\left\{b[n,j]+f_{n+1}^{*}(s-j*w[n])\right\}}$

Step 7: Compute the optimal value from the bottom-up
• In this step, a table is made