PGAPy: Python Wrapper for PGAPack Parallel Genetic Algorithm Library

Author:	Ralf Schlatterbeck <rsc@runtux.com>

News: This version wraps the Differential Evolution method (that's quite an old method but is newly implemented in pgapack).

PGAPy is a wrapper for PGAPack, the parallel genetic algorithm library (see PGAPack Readme), a powerfull genetic algorithm library by D. Levine, Mathematics and Computer Science Division Argonne National Laboratory. The library is written in C. PGAPy wraps this library for use with Python. The original PGAPack library is already quite old but is one of the most complete and accurate (and fast, although this is not my major concern when wrapping it to python) genetic algorithm implementations out there with a lot of bells and whistles for experimentation. It also has shown a remarkably small number of bugs over the years. It supports parallel execution via the message passing interface MPI in addition to a normal "serial" version. That's why I wanted to use it in Python, too.

There currently is not much documentation for PGAPy. You really, absolutely need to read the documentation that comes with PGAPack – and of course you need the PGAPack library. The PGAPack user guide is now shipped together with PGAPy. It is installed together with some examples in share/pgapy, wherever the Python installer decides to place this in the final installation (usually /usr/local/share on Linux).

The original PGAPack library can still be downloaded from the PGAPack ftp site, it is written in ANSI C and therefore should run on most platforms. Note that this version is not very actively maintained. I've started a PGAPack fork on github where I've ported the library to the latest version of the MPI standard and have fixed some minor inconsistencies in the documentation. I've also implemented some new features (notably enhancements in selection schemes and a new replacement strategy called restricted tournament replacement)

I have tested pgapy on Linux only and I'll currently not provide Windows versions. You also can find my PGAPack fork on github this repository has the three upstream releases as versions in git and contains some updates concerning support of newer MPI versions and documentation updates. I've also included patches in the git repository of the Debian maintainer of the package, Dirk Eddelbuettel.

To get you started, I've included some very simple examples in examples, e.g., one-max.py implements the "Maxbit" example similar to one in the PGAPack documentation. The examples were inspired by the book "Genetic Algorithms in Python" but are written from scratch and don't include any code from the book. The examples illustrates several points:

Your class implementing the genetic algorithm needs to inherit from pga.PGA (pga is the PGAPy wrapper module).
You need to define an evaluation function called evaluate that returns a number indicating the fitness of the gene given with the parameters p and pop that can be used to fetch allele values from the gene using the get_allele method, for more details refer to the PGAPack documentation.
You can define additional functions overriding built-in functions of the PGAPack library, illustrated by the example of print_string. Note that we could call the original print_string method of our PGA superclass. In the same way you can implement, e.g., your own crossover method.
The constructor of the class needs to define the Gene type, in the examples we use int and bool built-in datatypes.
The length of the gene needs to be given in the constructor.
We often want to maximize the numbers returned by our evaluation function, set the parameter maximize to False if you want to minimize.
For non-binary genes we can define an array of init values, each entry containing a sequence with lower and upper bound. The array has to have the length of the gene. Note that the upper bound is included in the range of possible values (unlike the python range operator but compatible with the PGAPack definition).
In the constructor of the class we can add parameters of the genetic algorithm. Not all parameters of PGAPack are wrapped yet, currently you would need to consult the sourcecode of PGAPy to find out which parameters are wrapped. In the example we define several print options.
Finally the genetic algorithm is started with the run method.

Naming conventions in PGAPy

When you extend PGAPy – remember not all functions of PGAPack are wrapped yet and you may need additional functions – you should stick to my naming conventions when making changes. The following naming conventions were used for the wrapper:

Constants of PGAPack like PGA_REPORT_STRING are used as-is in uppercase. These constants can be directly imported from the wrapper module. Not all constants are wrapped so far, if you need more, add them to the constdef array in pgamodule.c and send me a patch.
For methods of the pga.PGA class I've removed the PGA prefix used throughout PGAPack and converted the method to lowercase with underscores between uppercase words in the original function name, so PGARun becomes run, PGACheckStoppingConditions becomes check_stopping_conditions. An exception of the lowercase-rule is whenever a name contains "GA" (for "genetic algorithm"), So PGASetMaxGAIterValue becomes max_GA_iter.
Where possible I've made a single class method where PGAPack needs a separate function for each datatype, so PGAGetBinaryAllele, PGAGetCharacterAllele, PGAGetIntegerAllele, PGAGetRealAllele all become get_allele. Same holds true for set_allele.
Whenever a name in PGApack has a "Value" or "Flag" suffix, I've left this out, so PGAGetFitnessCmaxValue becomes fitness_cmax and PGAGetMutationAndCrossoverFlag becomes mutation_and_crossover, the only exception to this rule is for the two functions PGAGetMutationRealValue and PGAGetMutationIntegerValue which become mutation_value not just mutation.
Some fields can take multiple values (they are implemented by ORing integer constants, in python they are specified as a list or tuple of constants). These are converted to plural (if not already plural in PGApack), e.g., PGASetStoppingRuleType becomes stopping_rule_types.
Internal method names in the wrapper program have a leading PGA_ – so the class method set_allele is implemented by the C-function PGA_set_allele in pgamodule.c.

Constructor Parameters

PGApack has a lot of PGASet and PGAGet functions for setting parameters. These are reflected in constructor parameters on the one hand and in read-only properties of a PGA object on the other hand. The following table gives an overview of all the original PGApack names and the names of the python wrapper. For the PGApack name I've only listed the PGASet function, in many cases there is a corresponding PGAGet function. If a corresponding read-only property exists for a constructor parameter this is indicated in the "Prop" column. In some cases properties are missing because no corresponding PGAGet function is implemented in PGApack, in other cases returning a numeric value that has a symbolic constant in PGApy doesn't make much sense. The properties have the same name as the constructor parameter. There is one Property that is no constructor parameter, namely the GA_iter property that returns the current GA generation. In the type column I'm listing the Python type. If the type is followed by a number, more than one item of that type is specified (a sequence in Python). Some entries contain "sym", these are integer values with a symbolic constant, the value "msym" indicates that several values denoted by a list of symbolic constants can be given. A special case are the PGASetRealInitRange, PGASetRealInitPercent, PGASetIntegerInitRange functions. These take two values for each allele of the gene. In python this is a sequence of 2-tuples. Note that this means that you can have different ranges of allowed values for each allele.

The first two (mandatory) constructor parameters are the type of the gene (this takes a Python type, e.g., bool for a binary genome or int for an integer genome) and the length. Note that the string_length is implicitly set with the length parameter. The string_length is also available as the length of the PGA object using the Python built-in len function.

PGApack name	Constructor parameter	Type	Prop
`PGASetCrossoverProb`	`crossover_prob`	float	yes
`PGASetCrossoverType`	`crossover_type`	sym	no
`PGASetFitnessCmaxValue`	`fitness_cmax`	float	yes
`PGASetFitnessType`	`fitness_type`	sym	no
`PGAGetGAIterValue`	`GA_iter`	int	yes
`PGASetIntegerInitPermute`	`integer_init_permute`	int2	no
`PGASetIntegerInitRange`	`init`		no
`PGASetMaxFitnessRank`	`max_fitness_rank`	float	yes
`PGASetMaxGAIterValue`	`max_GA_iter`	int	yes
`PGASetMaxNoChangeValue`	`max_no_change`	int	no
`PGASetMaxSimilarityValue`	`max_similarity`	int	no
`PGASetMutationAndCrossoverFlag`	`mutation_and_crossover`	int	yes
`PGASetMutationBoundedFlag`	`mutation_bounded`	int	yes
`PGASetMutationIntegerValue`	`mutation_value`	int	yes
`PGASetMutationOrCrossoverFlag`	`mutation_or_crossover`	int	yes
`PGASetMutationProb`	`mutation_prob`	float	yes
`PGASetMutationRealValue`	`mutation_value`	float	yes
`PGASetMutationType`	`mutation_type`	sym	no
`PGASetNoDuplicatesFlag`	`no_duplicates`	int	no
`PGASetNumReplaceValue`	`num_replace`	int	yes
`PGASetPopSize`	`pop_size`	int	yes
`PGASetPopReplaceType`	`pop_replace_type`	sym	no
`PGASetPrintFrequencyValue`	`print_frequency`	int	yes
`PGASetPrintOptions`	`print_options`	msym	no
`PGASetPTournamentProb`	`p_tournament_prob`	float	yes
`PGASetRandomizeSelect`	`randomize_select`	int	yes
`PGASetRandomSeed`	`random_seed`	int	yes
`PGASetRealInitRange`	`init`		no
`PGASetRealInitPercent`	`init_percent`		no
`PGASetRestartFlag`	`restart`	int	yes
`PGASetRestartFrequencyValue`	`restart_frequency`	int	yes
`PGASetRTRWindowSize`	`rtr_window_size`	int	yes
`PGASetSelectType`	`select_type`	sym	no
`PGASetStoppingRuleType`	`stopping_rule_types`	msym	no
`PGASetStringLength`	`string_length`	int	yes
`PGASetTournamentSize`	`tournament_size`	int	yes
`PGASetTournamentWithReplacement`	`tournament_with_replacement`	int	yes
`PGASetTruncationProportion`	`truncation_proportion`	float	yes
`PGASetUniformCrossoverProb`	`uniform_crossover_prob`	float	yes

PGA Object Methods

The following are the methods that can be used during the run of the genetic search. The run method is used to start the search. This can be used, to, e.g., set an allele during hill-climbing in a custom endofgen method. Note that some methods only apply to certain gene types, e.g. the encode_int_ methods can only be used on binary alleles (they encode an integer value as a binary or gray code representation into the gene). Other methods take or return different types depending on the type of gene, e.g. get_allele or set_allele, they call different backend functions depending on the gene type. With the set_random_seed method, the random number generator can be re-seeded. It is usually best to seed the generator once at (before) the beginning by specifying random_seed in the constructor. For further details consult the user guide.

Method	Parameters	Return
`check_stopping_conditions`		True if stop should occur
`encode_int_as_binary`	p, pop, frm, to, val	None
`encode_int_as_gray_code`	p, pop, frm, to, val	None
`encode_real_as_binary`	p, pop, frm, to l, u, val	None
`encode_real_as_gray_code`	p, pop, frm, to l, u, val	None
`euclidian_distance`	p1, pop1 p2, pop2	float
`fitness`	pop	None
`get_allele`	p, pop, index	allele value
`get_best_index`	pop	index of best string
`get_evaluation`	p, pop	evaluation of p (float)
`get_evaluation_up_to_date`	p, pop	True if up-to-date
`get_fitness`	p, pop	fitness of p (float)
`get_int_from_binary`	p, pop, frm, to	int
`get_int_from_gray_code`	p, pop, frm, to	int
`get_iteration`		deprecated, use `GA_iter`
`get_real_from_binary`	p, pop, frm, to, l, u	float
`get_real_from_gray_code`	p, pop, frm, to, l, u	float
`random01`		float between 0 and 1
`random_flip`	probability	0 or 1
`random_gaussian`	mean, stddev	float
`random_interval`	l, r	int between l, r
`random_uniform`	l, r	float between l, r
`run`		None
`select_next_index`	pop	index selected individual
`set_allele`	p, pop, i, value	None
`set_evaluation`	p, pop, value	None
`set_evaluation_up_to_date`	p, pop, status	None
`set_random_seed`	seed	None (use constructor!)

User-Methods

PGApack has the concept of user functions. These allow customization of different areas of a genetic algorihm. In Python they are implemented as methods that can be changed in a derived class. One of the methods that must be implemented in a derived class is the evaluate function (although technically it is not a user function in PGApack). It interprets the gene and returns an evaluation value. PGApack computes a fitness from the raw evaluation value. For some methods an up-call into the PGA class is possible, for some methods this is not possible (and in most cases not reasonable). Note that for the stop_cond method, the standard check for stopping conditions can be called with:

self.check_stopping_conditions()

The following table lists the overridable methods with their parameters (for the function signature the first parameter self is omitted). Note that in PGApack there are additional user functions that are needed for user-defined data types which are currently not exposed in Python. In the function signatures p denotes the index of the individual and pop denotes the population. If more than one individual is specified (e.g., for crossover) these can be followed by a number. For crossover c1 and c2 denote the destination individuals (children). The propability for the mutation method is a floating-point value between 0 and 1. Remember to count the number of mutations that happen, and return that value for the mutation method!

Method	Call Signature	Return Value	Up-Call
`check_duplicate`	p1, pop1, p2, pop2	True if dupe	no
`stop_cond`		True to stop	no
`crossover`	p1, p2, p_pop, c1, c2, c_pop	None	no
`endofgen`		None	no
`evaluate`	p, pop	float	no
`gene_difference`	p1, pop1, p2, pop2	float	no
`initstring`	p, pop	None	no
`mutation`	p, pop, propability	#mutations	no
`pre_eval`	pop	None	no
`print_string`	file, p, pop	None	yes

Constants

The following PGApack constants are available:

Constant	Description
PGA_CROSSOVER_ONEPT	One-point Crossover
PGA_CROSSOVER_TWOPT	Two-point Crossover
PGA_CROSSOVER_UNIFORM	Uniform Crossover
PGA_FITNESSMIN_CMAX	Map fitness by subtracting worst
PGA_FITNESSMIN_RECIPROCAL	Map fitness via reciprocal
PGA_FITNESS_NORMAL	Linear normalization of fitness
PGA_FITNESS_RANKING	Linear fitness ranking
PGA_FITNESS_RAW	Identity fitness function
PGA_MUTATION_CONSTANT	Mutation by adding/subtracting constant
PGA_MUTATION_GAUSSIAN	Mutation by selecting from Gaussian distribution
PGA_MUTATION_PERMUTE	Mutation swaps two random genes
PGA_MUTATION_RANGE	Replace gene with uniform selection from init range
PGA_MUTATION_UNIFORM	Mutation uniform from interval
PGA_NEWPOP	Symbolic constant for new population
PGA_OLDPOP	Symbolic constant for old population
PGA_POPREPL_BEST	Population replacement best strings
PGA_POPREPL_PAIRWISE_BEST	Compare same index in old and new population
PGA_POPREPL_RANDOM_NOREP	Population replacement random no replacement
PGA_POPREPL_RANDOM_REP	Population replacement random with replacement
PGA_POPREPL_RTR	Restricted Tournament Replacement
PGA_REPORT_AVERAGE	Report average evaluation
PGA_REPORT_HAMMING	Report hamming distance
PGA_REPORT_OFFLINE	Report offline
PGA_REPORT_ONLINE	Report online
PGA_REPORT_STRING	Report the string
PGA_REPORT_WORST	Report the worst evaluation
PGA_SELECT_LINEAR	Return individuals in population order
PGA_SELECT_PROPORTIONAL	Fitness-proportional selection
PGA_SELECT_PTOURNAMENT	Binary probabilistic tournament selection
PGA_SELECT_SUS	Stochastic universal selection
PGA_SELECT_TOURNAMENT	Tournament selection
PGA_SELECT_TRUNCATION	Truncation selection
PGA_STOP_MAXITER	Stop on max iterations
PGA_STOP_NOCHANGE	Stop on max number of generations no change
PGA_STOP_TOOSIMILAR	Stop when individuals too similar

Missing Features

As already mentioned, not all functions and constants of PGAPack are wrapped yet – still for many applications the given set should be enough. If you need additional functions, you may want to wrap these and send me a patch.

Another feature of PGAPack is currently not implemented in the wrapper, the usage of custom datatypes. With PGAPack you can define your own datatypes complete with their custom implementations of the genetic algorithm functionality like crossover, mutation, etc. I don't expect problems implementing these, though.

Reporting Bugs

Please use the Sourceforge Bug Tracker or the Github Bug Tracker and

give a short description of what you think is the correct behaviour
give a description of the observed behaviour
tell me exactly what you did.
if you can publish your source code this makes it a lot easier to debug for me

Resources

Project information and download from Sourceforge main page

or checkout from Github

or directly install via pypi.

Changes

Version 0.8: Bugfix in real mutation

Fix a core-dump in the latest pgapack

Version 0.7: Major changes in wrapping

Now Differential Evolution is implemented, see the minfloat example and the user guide of pgapack.

Version 0.6: Major changes in wrapping

Now the wrapping uses the standard Python recommendations on how to create a custom class.
Update documentation
Rename fitness_cmax (from fitness_cmax_value)
Better error checking of parameters

Version 0.5: Bug-fix release

Now the setup.py works, previous version had an encoding problem
Wrap some minor new methods
Bug-fix in PGAPack truncation selection

Version 0.4: Bundle PGAPack

The PGAPack package is now included as a git submodule. By default we build against this library
License fixes: The module long shipped a COPYING file that includes the 2-clause BSD license. But the headers of setup.py and pgamodule.c still included another license. This has been corrected.

Version 0.3: Feature enhancements, Bug fixes

Port to Python3, Python2 is still supported, license change.

C-Code of wrapper updated to support both, Python2 and Python3
Update documentation
Fix some memory leaks that could result when errors occurred during some callback methods
License change: We now have the 2-clause BSD license (similar to the MPICH license of PGAPack), this used to be LGPL.

Version 0.2: Feature enhancements, Bug fixes

64 bit support, more PGAPack functions and attributes wrapped, Readme-update: Sourceforge logo, Changes chapter.

Bug-fixes for 64 bit architectures
More functions and attributes of PGAPack wrapped
Add a build-rule to setup.py to allow building for standard-install of PGAPack – this currently needs editing of setup.py – should use autodetect here but this would require that I set up a machine with standard install of PGAPack for testing.
Add Sourceforge logo as required
Add Changes chapter for automagic releases
Add the __module__ string to class PGA in module pga. Now calling:: help (pga) in python works as expected, previously no help-text was given for the included module

Version 0.1: Initial freshmeat announcement

PGAPy is a wrapper for PGAPack, the parallel genetic algorithm library, a powerful genetic algorithm library. PGAPy wraps this library for use with Python. Pgapack is one of the most complete and accurate genetic algorithm implementations out there with a lot of features for experimentation.

Initial Release