Hands-On Genetic Algorithms with Python

Solution representation

Expanding on the commonly used binary list (or array) representation, we can employ a list of integers, where each integer represents a unique color, while each element of the list matches one of the graph's nodes.

For example, since the Petersen graph has 10 nodes, we can assign each node an index between 0 and 9. Then, we can represent the node coloring for that graph using a list of 10 elements.

For example, let's have a look at what we have in this particular representation:

(0, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 0, 3, 3, 0)

Let's talk about what we have here in detail:

• Four colors are used, represented by the integers 0, 1, 2, 3.
• The first, seventh, and tenth nodes of the graph are colored with the first color (0).
• The third and ...