Skip to Content

Use a Cost Function to Calculate Shortest Path

Learn how to use a more complex cost function to calculate shortest paths and how to wrap this procedure into a table function to compare different paths.
You will learn
  • How to calculate shortest path based on a cost function
  • How to use insert a condition in the cost function
  • How to wrap a GRAPH procedure in a table function
Created by
VijayKrishnanSR
July 26, 2021
Contributors
VijayKrishnanSR

Prerequisites

In the previous tutorial, you used hop distance to calculate a shortest path. Now you will use a more meaningful cost function: you derive the time it takes to traverse a street segment.

The EDGES table contains a length and maxspeed column. maxspeed is a string column with values like ‘30 mph’. For this tutorial you first need to create a new numeric column SPEED_MPH and extract the number part of maxspeed into this column. Your next step will be to re-write the procedure to take the expression “length/SPEED_MPH” as cost function.

This tutorial consists of four steps:

  • Generate a numeric column that contains the maximum speed allowed information
  • Calculate the shortest path to minimize the time spent
  • Find Pubs and Bike lanes
  • Wrap a GRAPH procedure in a Table Function
  • Step 1

    First, you need to add an integer column to the LONDON_BIKE_EDGES table. Extract the number part of maxspeed by executing this statement:

    SQL
    Copy
    ALTER TABLE "LONDON_EDGES" ADD("SPEED_MPH" INT);
    UPDATE "LONDON_EDGES"
    	SET "SPEED_MPH" = TO_INT(REPLACE("maxspeed", ' mph', ''))
    	WHERE REPLACE("maxspeed", ' mph', '') <> "maxspeed" ;
    SELECT "SPEED_MPH", COUNT(*) AS C FROM "LONDON_EDGES" GROUP BY "SPEED_MPH" ORDER BY C DESC;
    -- let's add a default value on the segments that do not have a speed information
    UPDATE "LONDON_EDGES" SET "SPEED_MPH" = 30 WHERE "SPEED_MPH" IS NULL;
    

    In the Result panel you can see the distribution of the SPEED_MPH column after updating with default values.

    SPEED
    Log in to complete tutorial
  • Step 2

    Just like in the previous tutorial, you need to define a table type and a procedure. This time, use “length/SPEED_MPH” as cost function. Syntactically, the cost function is a lambda function like this:

    (Edge e) => DOUBLE{ return :e."length"/DOUBLE(:e."SPEED_MPH"); }
    

    Copy and paste this statement to your SQL console and execute it to create the procedure:

    SQL
    Copy
    CREATE TYPE "TT_SPOO_WEIGHTED_EDGES" AS TABLE (
        "ID" NVARCHAR(5000), "SOURCE" BIGINT, "TARGET" BIGINT, "EDGE_ORDER" BIGINT, "length" DOUBLE, "SPEED_MPH" INT
    );
    
    
    CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE "GS_SPOO_WEIGHTED"(
    	IN i_startVertex BIGINT, 		-- INPUT: the ID of the start vertex
    	IN i_endVertex BIGINT, 			-- INPUT: the ID of the end vertex
    	IN i_direction VARCHAR(10), 	-- INPUT: the direction of the edge traversal: OUTGOING (default), INCOMING, ANY
    	OUT o_path_length BIGINT,		-- OUTPUT: the hop distance between start and end
    	OUT o_path_weight DOUBLE,		-- OUTPUT: the path weight/cost
    	OUT o_edges "TT_SPOO_WEIGHTED_EDGES"  -- OUTPUT: the edges that make up the path
    	)
    LANGUAGE GRAPH READS SQL DATA AS BEGIN
    	-- Create an instance of the graph, referring to the graph workspace object
    	GRAPH g = Graph("DAT260", "LONDON_GRAPH");
    	-- Create an instance of the start/end vertex
    	VERTEX v_start = Vertex(:g, :i_startVertex);
    	VERTEX v_end = Vertex(:g, :i_endVertex);
    	--WeightedPath<DOUBLE> p = Shortest_Path(:g, :v_start, :v_end, (Edge e) => DOUBLE{ return :e."length"; }, :i_direction);
    	WeightedPath<DOUBLE> p = Shortest_Path(:g, :v_start, :v_end,
    		(Edge e) => DOUBLE{
    			return :e."length"/DOUBLE(:e."SPEED_MPH");
    		}, :i_direction);
    	o_path_length = LENGTH(:p);
    	o_path_weight = WEIGHT(:p);
    	o_edges = SELECT :e."ID", :e."SOURCE", :e."TARGET", :EDGE_ORDER, :e."length", :e."SPEED_MPH" FOREACH e IN Edges(:p) WITH ORDINALITY AS EDGE_ORDER;
    END;
    

    Next, call the procedure by executing this statement:

    SQL
    Copy
    CALL "GS_SPOO_WEIGHTED"(1433737988, 1794145673, 'ANY', ?, ?, ?);
    
    SPOO WEIGHTED

    If you visualize the procedure on a map, it should look like this:

    SPOO WEIGHTED MAP COMBI
    Log in to complete tutorial
  • Step 3

    Finding the fastest route is easy. Let’s find two more interesting paths. First, you need to find paths suitable for bikes. You can do so by boosting street segments which are “cycleways”.

    Note that in most cases you cannot take cycleways only. The path algorithm will choose cycleways unless they are 10x longer than a normal road.

    For this logic you will use an IF statement within the cost function.

    Second, you would like to find “attractive” paths. You will calculate a new measure for the edges - “PUBINESS” - which is derived from the number of pubs nearby.

    1. First, let’s calculate PUBINESS by counting pubs within 100m distance and add this to our LONDON_EDGES table. You are using the spatial ST_WithinDistance predicate as join condition:

      SQL
      Copy
      ON pubs."SHAPE".ST_WithinDistance(e."EDGESHAPE", 100) = 1
      
    2. This is the complete statement to alter the table and adding our PUBINESS measure. Paste and execute it:

      SQL
      Copy
      ALTER TABLE "LONDON_EDGES" ADD ("PUBINESS" DOUBLE DEFAULT 0);
      MERGE INTO "LONDON_EDGES"
      USING (
      	SELECT e."ID", COUNT(*) AS "PUBINESS" FROM
      		(SELECT * FROM "LONDON_POI" WHERE "amenity" ='pub') AS pubs
      		LEFT JOIN
      		(SELECT "ID", "SHAPE" AS "EDGESHAPE" FROM "LONDON_EDGES") AS e
      		ON pubs."SHAPE".ST_WithinDistance(e."EDGESHAPE", 100) = 1
      		GROUP BY e."ID" ORDER BY "PUBINESS" DESC)	AS U
      ON "LONDON_EDGES"."ID" = U."ID"
      WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET "LONDON_EDGES"."PUBINESS" = U."PUBINESS";
      
    3. Using this statement, you can check the distribution of this new PUBINESS property.

      SQL
      Copy
      SELECT "PUBINESS", COUNT(*) AS C FROM "LONDON_EDGES" GROUP BY "PUBINESS" ORDER BY "PUBINESS" ASC;
      
    4. This is what the results should look like:

      PUBINESS DISTRIBUTION

      Now, you can use the new measure as part of the cost function for path finding with mode “pub”.

      Shortest_Path(:g, :v_start, :v_end, (Edge e) => DOUBLE {
      RETURN :e."length"/(5.0*:e."PUBINESS"+1.0);
      }, :i_direction);
      

      For finding the path with mode “bike”, you can use a conditional cost function. Street segments which are of type “cycleway” are boosted by dividing the length by 10.

      SQL
      Copy
      Shortest_Path(:g, :v_start, :v_end, (EDGE e)=> DOUBLE {
      IF(:e."highway" == 'cycleway') { RETURN :e."length"/10.0; }
      ELSE { RETURN :e."length"; }
      }, :i_direction);Shortest_Path(:g, :v_start, :v_end, (EDGE e)=> DOUBLE {
      IF(:e."highway" == 'cycleway') { RETURN :e."length"/10.0; }
      ELSE { RETURN :e."length"; }
      }, :i_direction);
      
    5. Create a TABLE TYPE first with the following statement.

      SQL
      Copy
      CREATE TYPE "TT_SPOO_MULTI_MODE" AS TABLE (
      	"ID" NVARCHAR(5000), "SOURCE" BIGINT, "TARGET" BIGINT, "EDGE_ORDER" BIGINT, "length" DOUBLE, "SPEED_MPH" INT, "highway" NVARCHAR(5000)
      );
      
    6. Then create the procedure with this statement.

      SQL
      Copy
      CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE "GS_SPOO_MULTI_MODE"(
      IN i_startVertex BIGINT, 		-- the ID of the start vertex
      IN i_endVertex BIGINT, 			-- the ID of the end vertex
      IN i_direction VARCHAR(10), 	-- the the direction of the edge traversal: OUTGOING (default), INCOMING, ANY
      IN i_mode VARCHAR(10), 		-- hop, time, bike
      OUT o_path_length BIGINT,		-- the hop distance between start and end
      OUT o_path_weight DOUBLE,		-- the path weight/cost based on the WEIGHT attribute
      OUT o_edges "TT_SPOO_MULTI_MODE"
      )
      LANGUAGE GRAPH READS SQL DATA AS BEGIN
      GRAPH g = Graph("DAT260", "LONDON_GRAPH");
      VERTEX v_start = Vertex(:g, :i_startVertex);
      VERTEX v_end = Vertex(:g, :i_endVertex);
      -- mode=bike means cycleway preferred
      IF (:i_mode == 'bike') {
      	WeightedPath<DOUBLE> p = Shortest_Path(:g, :v_start, :v_end,
      	(EDGE e, DOUBLE current_path_weight)=> DOUBLE{
        			IF(:e."highway" == 'cycleway') { RETURN :e."length"/10.0; }
          ELSE { RETURN :e."length"; }
        	}, :i_direction);
      	o_path_length = LENGTH(:p);
      	o_path_weight = DOUBLE(WEIGHT(:p));
      	o_edges = SELECT :e."ID", :e."SOURCE", :e."TARGET", :EDGE_ORDER, :e."length", :e."SPEED_MPH", :e."highway" FOREACH e IN Edges(:p) WITH ORDINALITY AS EDGE_ORDER;
      }
      -- mode=pub means street with pubs around preferred
      IF (:i_mode == 'pub') {
      	WeightedPath<DOUBLE> p = Shortest_Path(:g, :v_start, :v_end, (Edge e) => DOUBLE{
      		RETURN :e."length"/(5.0*:e."PUBINESS"+1.0);
      	}, :i_direction);
      	o_path_length = LENGTH(:p);
      	o_path_weight = DOUBLE(WEIGHT(:p));
      	o_edges = SELECT :e."ID", :e."SOURCE", :e."TARGET", :EDGE_ORDER, :e."length", :e."SPEED_MPH", :e."highway" FOREACH e IN Edges(:p) WITH ORDINALITY AS EDGE_ORDER;
      }
      END;
      
    7. To see the results, you can again use a CALL statement:

      SQL
      Copy
      CALL "GS_SPOO_MULTI_MODE"(1433737988, 1794145673, 'ANY', 'pub', ?, ?, ?);
      CALL "GS_SPOO_MULTI_MODE"(1433737988, 1794145673, 'ANY', 'bike', ?, ?, ?);
      
    Log in to complete tutorial
  • Step 4

    The procedure above returns more than one output - the path’s length, weight, and a table with the edges. Sometimes it is convenient to wrap a GRAPH procedure in a table function, returning only the tabular output. Table functions are called via SELECT and are a convenient way to post-process graph results - you can use the full power of SQL on your graph results. This is how you do it:

    1. First, as in the previous examples, create the TABLE TYPE:

      SQL
      Copy
      CREATE TYPE "TT_EDGES_SPOO_F" AS TABLE (
      	"ID" NVARCHAR(5000), "SOURCE" BIGINT, "TARGET" BIGINT, "EDGE_ORDER" BIGINT, "length" DOUBLE, "SHAPE" ST_GEOMETRY(32630)
      );
      
    2. Then create the function:

      SQL
      Copy
      CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION "F_SPOO_EDGES"(
      IN i_startVertex BIGINT,
      IN i_endVertex BIGINT,
      IN i_direction VARCHAR(10),
      IN i_mode VARCHAR(10)
      )
        RETURNS "LONDON_EDGES"
      LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT READS SQL DATA AS
      BEGIN
      DECLARE o_path_length DOUBLE;
      DECLARE o_path_weight DOUBLE;
        CALL "GS_SPOO_MULTI_MODE"(:i_startVertex, :i_endVertex, :i_direction, :i_mode, o_path_length, o_path_weight, o_edges);
        RETURN SELECT lbe.* FROM :o_edges AS P LEFT JOIN "LONDON_EDGES" lbe ON P."ID" = lbe."ID";
      END;
      
    3. Now you can simply calculate the average PUBINESS of a path, or UNION two paths to compare. To calculate the average value of one path, use this statement:

      SQL
      Copy
      SELECT AVG("PUBINESS")
      FROM "F_SPOO_EDGES"(1433737988, 1794145673, 'ANY', 'pub');
      
    4. To compare two paths, you can use this statement:

      SQL
      Copy
      SELECT "ID", "SHAPE" FROM "F_SPOO_EDGES"(1433737988, 1794145673, 'ANY', 'pub')
      UNION
      SELECT "ID", "SHAPE" FROM "F_SPOO_EDGES"(1433737988, 1794145673, 'ANY', 'bike');
      
    5. Visualizing this comparison should look like this:

      TWO PATHS

    You now have used two more cost functions for path finding. You have wrapped the GRAPH procedure into a table function which can be called in a SQL SELECT statement. This is a nice way of mixing graph and relational processing.

    In the next tutorial, learn how to calculate isochrones and closeness centrality.

    Log in to complete tutorial
  • Step 5

    Which among these options can be used as arguments in the built-in graph algorithm Shortest_Path()?

    Log in to complete tutorial
Back to top