Function heuristic

PathfindingUtils

Heuristic Function.

This function calculates the heuristic (estimated) cost from a given node to the goal node. The heuristic guides the A* pathfinding algorithm to explore the most promising paths first, leading to faster and more efficient pathfinding.

The default heuristic implementation provided here uses the Euclidean distance between the current node and the goal node as the estimated cost. You can provide your own custom heuristic function for more specialized behavior in the pathfinding algorithm.

Example

// Using the default heuristic to calculate the estimated cost from nodeA to nodeB.
const nodeA: GraphNode<Point> = { id: "A", data: { x: 0, y: 0 }, neighbors: [], parent: null };
const nodeB: GraphNode<Point> = { id: "B", data: { x: 3, y: 4 }, neighbors: [], parent: null };
const estimatedCost = heuristic(nodeA, nodeB); // Output: 5 (distance between (0,0) and (3,4) is 5)
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Example

// Implementing a custom heuristic function.
function customHeuristic(node: GraphNode<Point>, goal: GraphNode<Point>): number {
  // Your custom heuristic calculation logic here
  // Return the estimated cost from the current node to the goal node
}

// Using the custom heuristic function.
const nodeC: GraphNode<Point> = { id: "C", data: { x: 1, y: 1 }, neighbors: [], parent: null };
const nodeD: GraphNode<Point> = { id: "D", data: { x: 5, y: 9 }, neighbors: [], parent: null };
const estimatedCost = customHeuristic(nodeC, nodeD);
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