RORUTA-RankRelatedPreferentialReductsHierarchical

Provider:PUT
Version:1.0

Description

Finds all rank related preferential reducts. In other words, for each alternative, it finds all minimal sets of pairwise comparisons that has an impact on its range of possible ranking positions. Function supports a hierarchical decomposition of the problem.

Inputs

(For outputs, see below)

criteria

Description:

A list of all considered criteria. The input value should be a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is criteria.

alternatives

Description:

The list of all considered alternatives. The input value should be a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is alternatives. Each alternative may be described using two attributes: id and name. While the first one denotes a machine readable name, the second represents a human readable name.

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: alternatives

  • Code:

    <alternatives>
        <alternative id="%1" name="%2" />
        [...]
    </alternatives>
    

hierarchy of criteria

Description:

Description of the hierarchical structure of criteria. Each node of this hierarchy needs to have a unique id attribute. The most nested nodes, should contain a set of criteria. The input value should be provided as a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is hierarchy

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: hierarchy

  • Code:

    <hierarchy>
        <node id="nodes">
            <node id="nodes1">
                <criteriaSet>
                    <element><criterionID>%1</criterionID></element> [...]
                </criteriaSet>
            </node>
            [...]
        </node>
        [...]
    </hierarchy>
    

performances

Description:

Description of evaluation of alternatives on different criteria. It is required to provide the IDs of both criteria and alternatives described previously. The input value should be provided as a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is performanceTable

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: performanceTable

  • Code:

    <performanceTable>
        <alternativePerformances>
            <alternativeID>%1</alternativeID>
            <performance>
                <criterionID>%2</criterionID>
                <value>
                    <real>%3</real>
                </value>
            </performance>
            [...]
        </alternativePerformances>
        [...]
    </performanceTable>
    

characteristic points

Optional: yes, enabled by default

Description:

A set of values associated with the criteria. This input allows to determine what type of value function should be used for the particular criterion. For each criterion that has an associated greater than one value, a piecewise linear value function is used. In this case, the mentioned value denotes a number of characteristic points of this value function. For the criteria that are not listed in this file, or for these for which the provided values are lower than two uses a general value function. The input value should be provided as a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is criteriaValues. Each element should contain both an id of the criterion, and value tag.

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: criteriaValues

  • Code:

     <criteriaValues>
        <criterionValue>
            <criterionID>%1</criterionID>
            <value>
                <integer>%2</integer>
            </value>
        </criterionValue>
        [...]
    </criteriaValues>
    

criteria preference directions

Optional: yes, enabled by default

Description:

A set of values associated with criteria that determine their preference direction (0 - gain, 1 - cost).

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: criteriaValues

  • Code:

     <criteriaValues mcdaConcept="preferenceDirection">
        <criterionValue>
            <criterionID>%1</criterionID>
            <value>
                <integer>%2</integer>
            </value>
        </criterionValue>
        [...]
    </criteriaValues>
    

preferences

Optional: yes, enabled by default

Description:

Set of pairwise comparisons of reference alternatives. For a pair of alternatives three types of comparisons are supported. These are the strict preference, weak preference, and indifference. Values linked to pairs indicate ids of nodes in the hierarchy of criteria tree. If value is not given or if it is equal to 0 pairwise comparison is assumed to concern for the whole set of criteria. Otherwise, the preference relation applies only to a particular node. The input value should be provided as a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is alternativesComparisons. For each type of comparison, a separate alternativesComparisons tag should be used. Within these groups a mentioned types are denoted using a comparisonType tag by respectively strict, weak, and indif label. Comparisons should be provided as pairs of alternatives ids.

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: alternativesComparisons

  • Code:

    <alternativesComparisons>
        <comparisonType>
            %1<!-- type of preference: strong, weak, or indif -->
        </comparisonType>
        <pairs>
            <pair>
                <initial>
                    <alternativeID>%2</alternativeID>
                </initial>
                <terminal>
                    <alternativeID>%3</alternativeID>
                </terminal>
                <value>
                    <label>%4</label>
                </value>
            </pair>
            [...]
        </pairs>
    </alternativesComparisons>
    

worst ranking hierarchical

Description:

The worst possible ranking positions that may be achieved by the alternatives taking into consideration all value functions that are compatible with the preference information.The input value should be provided as a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is alternativesValues. Each of these tags describes an another node of hierarchy tree marked in its id attribute.

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: alternativesValues

  • Code:

    <alternativesValues id="%1">
        <alternativeValue>
            <alternativeID>[...]</alternativeID>
            <value>
                <real>[...]</real>
            </value>
         </alternativeValue>
        [...]
    </alternativesValues>
    

best ranking hierarchical

Description:

The best possible ranking positions that may be achieved by the alternatives taking into consideration all value functions that are compatible with the preference information.The input value should be provided as a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is alternativesValues. Each of these tags describes an another node of hierarchy tree marked in its id attribute.

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: alternativesValues

  • Code:

    <alternativesValues id=%1>
        <alternativeValue>
            <alternativeID>[...]</alternativeID>
            <value>
                <real>[...]</real>
            </value>
         </alternativeValue>
        [...]
    </alternativesValues>
    

parameters

Description:

Single boolean value. Determines whether to use sctrictly increasing (true) or monotonously increasing (false) value functions

GUI information:

  • Name: Use strictly increasing value functions?
    • Default value: false

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: methodParameters

  • Code:

     <methodParameters>
        <parameter name="strict">
            <value>
                <boolean>%1</boolean>
            </value>
        </parameter>
    </methodParameters>
    

Outputs

reducts by alternatives hierarchical

Description:

Description of preferential reducts that are found for each alternative. The returned value is a valid XMCDA document whose main tag is the alternativesValues. Each element of this data contains an id of the alternative and a set of string values that describe different possible minimal sets of pairwise comparisons which imply this result. Each of these values is a comma separated list of relations. Each comparison is described as a pair of ids separated by one of the three possible labels: strong, weak, and indif. These abbreviations denotes respectively a strong preference, weak preference, or indifference between mentioned alternatives. Each alternativesValues group describes an another node of hierarchy tree marked in its id attribute.

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: alternativesValues

  • Code:

    <alternativesValues id=%1>
        <alternativeValue>
          <alternativeID>%2</alternativeID>
          <values>
            <value>
              <label>%3</label>
            </value>
            [...]
          </values>
        </alternativeValue>
        [...]
    </alternativesValues>
    [...]
    

messages

Description:

A list of messages generated by the algorithm.

XMCDA related:

  • Tag: methodMessages

For further technical details on the web service underlying this program, have a look at its documentation here.