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The heart of the algorithm is the loop that contains the search process. The first half of this process is:

Pop the next path list off the frontier
Get the frontier node from the path list
Check if the node value matches the goal value
  If there is a match, return the path to the current node

The first iteration of this loop has a frontier with one path: a list with the root node. The node will be retrieved and have its value checked against the goal value.

Instructions

1.

To start the search:

  • Implement a while loop that continues while path_queue has at least one element.
  • Inside the loop, define current_path and assign it the next element in path_queue using .pop().

Be sure this step removes an element from path_queue or else the code will enter an infinite loop.

2.

Now let’s retrieve the frontier node to search:

  • Define current_node and assign it to the last element of current_path.
  • Output the message, "Searching node with value: [current_node.value]".
3.

Now let’s add some functionality to see if the search found goal_value:

  • Inside the while loop create an if statement that checks if value in current_node is equal to goal_value.
  • Inside the if statement, return current_path.

When you go to main.py and run the code, the output will still be No paths found!. Why is that?

(We’ll fix this in the next step.)

4.

In main.py, the argument being passed to the goal_value parameter in the bfs() call is currently "Z". If you look at the tree values printed to the console you’ll see that there is no "Z". Currently, the only node added to the frontier queue is the root node whose value is "Home".

To fix this, change the second argument in the bfs() call from "Z" to "Home".

If you run the code again, you should now see a returned path to the goal node printed to the console. The path is just "Home".

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