John Henry

I need to write a program that searches a very large databse with a view to optimising the value of a particular variable (or perhaps I should say field). Most of the fields in the database will be numerical and inter-related, but some are not. For this reason, I have been thinking of using a Genetic Algorithm or an Annealing Algorithm of some description, but this would not guarantee an absolute optimum value. I'm wondering if anyone has any good ideas on how to ensure an absolute optimum without having to perform a comprehensive search.

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"No one was behaving from very Buddhist motives. Then, thought Pigsy, he was hardly a Buddha, nor was he a monkey. Presently, he was a pig spirit changed into a little girl pretending to be a little boy to be offered to a water monster. It was all very simple to a pig spirit."