Good way to detect identical expressions in C++ - c++

Question

I am writing a program that solves this puzzle game: some numbers and a goal number is given, and you make the goal number using the n numbers and operators +, -, *, / and (). For example, given 2,3,5,7 and the goal number 10, the solutions are (2+3)*(7-5)=10, 3*5-(7-2)=10, and so on.
The catch is, if I implement it naively, I will get a bunch of identical solutions, like (2+3)*(7-5)=10 and (3+2)*(7-5)=10, and 3*5-(7-2)=10 and 5*3-(7-2)=10 and 3*5-7+2=10 and 3*5+2-7=10 and so on. So I'd like to detect those identical solutions and prune them.
I'm currently using randomly generated double numbers to detect identical solutions. What I'm doing is basically substituting those random numbers to the solution and check if there are any pairs of them that calculate to the same number. I have to perform the detection at every node of my search, so it has to be fast, and I use hashset for it now.
Now the problem is the error that comes with the calculation. Because even identical solutions do not calculate to the exactly same value, I currently round the calculated value to a precision when storing in the hashset. However this does not seem to work well enough, and gives different number of solutions every time to the same problem. Sometimes the random numbers are bad and prune some completely different solutions. Sometimes the calculated value lies on the edge of rounding function and it outputs two(or more) identical solutions. Is there a better way to do this?
EDIT:
By "identical" I mean two or more solutions(f(w,x,y,z,...) and g(w,x,y,z,...)) that calculate to the same number whatever the original number(w,x,y,z...) is. For more examples, 4/3*1/2 and 1*4/3/2 and (1/2)/(3/4) are identical, but 4/3/1/2 and 4/(3*1)/2 are not because if you change 1 to some other number they will not produce the same result.

Answer 1

It will be easier if you "canonicalize" the expressions before comparing them. One way would be to sort when an operation is commutative, so 3+2 becomes 2+3 whereas 2+3 remains as it was. Of course you will need to establish an ordering for parenthesized groups as well, like 3+(2*1)...does that become (1*2)+3 or 3+(1*2)? What the ordering is doesn't necessarily matter, so long as it is a total ordering.

Answer 2

Generate all possibilities of your expressions. Then..
When you create expressions, put them in a collection of parsed trees (this would also eliminate your parenthesis). Then "push down" any division and subtraction into the leaf nodes so that all the non-leaf nodes have * and +. Apply a sorting of the branches (e.g. regular string sort) and then compare the trees to see if they are identical.

Answer 3

I like the idea of using doubles. The problem is in the rounding. Why not use a container SORTED by the value obtained with one random set of double inputs. When you find the place you would insert in that container, you can look at the immediately preceding and following items. Use a different set of random doubles to recompute each for the more robust comparison. Then you can have a reasonable cutoff for "close enough to be equal" without arbitrary rounding.
If a pair of expressions are close enough for equal in both the main set of random numbers and the second set, the expressions are safely "same" and the newer one discarded. If close enough for equal in the main set but not the new set, you have a rare problem, that probably requires rekeying the entire container with a different random number set. If not close enough in either, then they are different.

Answer 4

For the larger n suggested by one of your recent comments, I think you would need the better performance that should be possible from a canonical by construction method (or maybe "almost" canonical by construction) rather than a primarily comparison based approach.
You don't want to construct an incredibly large number of expressions, then canonicalize and compare.
Define a doubly recursive function can(...) that takes as input:
A reference to a canonical expression tree.
A reference to one subexpression of that tree.
A count N of inputs to be injected.
A set of flags for prohibiting some injections.
A leaf function to call.
If N is zero, can just calls the leaf function. If N is nonzero, can patches the subtree in every possible way that produces a canonical tree with N injected variables, and calls the leaf function for each and restores the tree, undoing each part of the patch as it is done with it, so we never need massive copying.
X is the subtree and K is a leaf representing variable N-1. First can would replace the subtree temporarily one at a time with subtrees representing some of (X)+K, (X)-K, (X)*K, (X)/K and K/(X) but both flags and some other rules would cause some of those to be skipped. For each not skipped, recursively call itself with the whole tree as both top and sub, with N-1, and with 0 flags.
Next drill into the two children of X and call recursively itself with that as the subtree, with N, and with appropriate flags.
The outer just calls can with a single node tree representing variable N-1 of the original N, and passing N-1.
In discussion, it is easier to name the inputs forward, so A is input N-1 and B is input N-2 etc.
When we drill into X and see it is Y+Z or Y-Z we don't want to add or subtract K from Y or Z because those are redundant with X+K or X-K. So we pass a flag that suppresses direct add or subtract.
Similarly, when we drill into X and see it is Y*Z or Y/Z we don't want to multiply or divide either Y or Z by K because that is redundant with multiplying or dividing X by K.
Some cases for further clarification:
(A/C)/B and A/(B*C) are easily non canonical because we prefer (A/B)/C and so when distributing C into (A/B) we forbid direct multiplying or dividing.
I think it takes just a bit more effort to allow C/(A*B) while rejecting C/(A/B) which was covered by (B/A)*C.
It is easier if negation is inherently non canonical, so level 1 is just A and does not include -A then if the whole expression yields negative the target value, we negate the whole expression. Otherwise we never visit the negative of a canonical expression:
Given X, we might visit (X)+K, (X)-K, (X)*K, (X)/K and K/(X) and we might drill down into the parts of X passing flags which suppress some of the above cases for the parts:
If X is a + or - suppress '+' or '-' in its direct parts. If X is a * or / suppress * or divide in its direct parts.
But if X is a / we also suppress K/(X) before drilling into X.

Answer 5

Since you are dealing with integers, I'd focus on getting an exact result.
Claim: Suppose there is some f(a_1, ..., a_n) = x where a_i and x are your integer input numbers and f(a_1, ..., a_n) represents any functions of your desired form. Then clearly f(a_i) - x = 0. I claim, we can construct a different function g with g(x, a_1, ..., a_n) = 0 for the exact same x and g only uses ()s, +, - and * (no division).
I'll prove that below. Consequently you could construct g evaluate g(x, a_1, ..., a_n) = 0 on integers only.
Example:
Suppose we have a_i = i for i = 1, ..., 4 and f(a_i) = a_4 / (a_2 - (a_3 / 1)) (which contains divisions so far). This is how I would like to simplify:
0 = a_4 / (a_2 - (a_3 / a_1) ) - x | * (a_2 - (a_3 / a_1) )
0 = a_4 - x * (a_2 - (a_3 / a_1) ) | * a_1
0 = a_4 * a_1 - x * (a_2 * a_1 - (a_3) )
In this form, you can verify your equality for some given integer x using integer operations only.
Proof:
There is some g(x, a_i) := f(a_i) - x which is equivalent to f. Consider any equivalent g with as few as possible division. Assume there is at least one (otherwise we are done). Assume within g we divide by h(x, a_i) (any of your functions, may contain divisions itself). Then (g*h)(x, a_i) := g(x, a_i) * h(x, a_i) has the same roots, as g has (multiplying by a root, ie. (x, a_i) where g(a_i) - x = 0, preserves all roots). But on the other hand, g*h is composed of one division fewer. A contradiction (g with minimum number of divisions), which is why g doesn't contain any division.
I've updated the example to visualize the strategy.
Update: This works well on rational input numbers (those represent a single division p/q). This should help you. Other input can't be provided by humans.
What are you doing to find / test f's? I'd guess some form of dynamic programming will be fast in practice.