Hi All,

I am a student and assign to develop map application which able to show all possible ways to go to a particular place when starting point and destination being specify by user. How am I suppose to do. I have no idea on doing so. I hope anyone could guide and provide me some resources for my reference.

Thank You

Regards
Vinz

First of all you have to build a graph structure "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_(mathematics)". Each node will represent a junction and each edge a road between two junctions. Now everything is simple, you just have to apply one of path finding algorithms on your graph. For example "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijkstra's_algorithm" will find a shortes way between two points. You can use BSF or DFS algorithms as well.

Hello guys,

What fresco said is right, but coding an algorithm is not the problem in this case (Search for " A* " or "A Star")
The problem is how to get the map-data
(I am assuming that you want to do a real life map application )
Give us a little information on what you finally want do do (if it isn't secret ).

Regards,
plusminus

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.. However I am still confuse. I think it is better for me to explain my project in more details. I am assign to develop map application. I am not required to use GPS system or internet connection. If a particular user key in the starting point and destination, my application must be able to show all possible ways to reach the destination which is to list all possible routes for the user to select so it is not to display only one route unless to reach the destination it is the only way. Then I need to highlight the routes in different color to show the difference between each route. Below are the problems I am facing:

a) What programming language and software recommended in order to develop this application?

b) How am I going to make the algorithm integrate with the map, means when the user key in the starting and destination,the application will show the all possible routes with different colour on the map?

c) Do i need to declare object on the map image, and is it possible to use netbean to do so?


d) Do I need to use database to develop this application?

e) I did go through the A*, DFS and BFS, but it seems to list only one solution to reach desire goal. Besides, I need to make the algorithm in such way that if it the node is repeated again to reach the destination the system should discard it.

Thank You so much, hope anyone of you could guide me on this matter.

Regards
Vinz

a) The language you are most familiar with. I hope you won't choose assembler or other low level language
b) That's not easy to explain. As I already said you have to build a graph corresponding to your map, you can't do anything with regular image file. Each node can contain the coordinates of the junction it represents on the real map, so you will be able to draw the path on the original image. If the user choose to start from the middle of the street (not from junction) just add one more node to your graph in this place with just two edges.
c) I don't think I understand the quiestion. Probably you will have to create dozen of image objects during your work, and sure you can use netbeans IDE.
d)You can, but you don't have to. You can use regular binary file to save the data.
e)It's easy, after you find the shortest way, remove the edges you just used and repeate the search.