Editing Greedoid (section)

{{Short description|Set system used in greedy optimization}}

In [[combinatorics]], a '''greedoid''' is a type of [[set system]]. It arises from the notion of the [[matroid]], which was originally introduced by [[Hassler Whitney|Whitney]] in 1935 to study [[planar graph]]s and was later used by [[Jack Edmonds|Edmonds]] to characterize a class of optimization problems that can be solved by [[greedy algorithm]]s. Around 1980, [[Bernhard Korte|Korte]] and [[László Lovász|Lovász]] introduced the greedoid to further generalize this characterization of greedy algorithms; hence the name greedoid. Besides [[mathematical optimization]], greedoids have also been connected to [[graph theory]], language theory, [[order theory]], and other [[areas of mathematics]].