A unionMoveSelector selects a Move by selecting 1 of its MoveSelector children to supply the next Move.

Simplest configuration:

    <unionMoveSelector>
      <...MoveSelector/>
      <...MoveSelector/>
      <...MoveSelector/>
      ...
    </unionMoveSelector>

Advanced configuration:

    <unionMoveSelector>
      ... <!-- Normal selector properties -->
      <selectorProbabilityWeightFactoryClass>...ProbabilityWeightFactory</selectorProbabilityWeightFactoryClass>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <fixedProbabilityWeight>...</fixedProbabilityWeight>
        ...
      </changeMoveSelector>
      <swapMoveSelector>
        <fixedProbabilityWeight>...</fixedProbabilityWeight>
        ...
      </swapMoveSelector>
      <...MoveSelector>
        <fixedProbabilityWeight>...</fixedProbabilityWeight>
        ...
      </...MoveSelector>
      ...
    </unionMoveSelector>

The selectorProbabilityWeightFactory determines in selectionOrder RANDOM how often a MoveSelector child is selected to supply the next Move. By default, each MoveSelector child has the same chance of being selected.

Change the fixedProbabilityWeight of such a child to select it more often. For example, the unionMoveSelector can return a SwapMove twice as often as a ChangeMove:

    <unionMoveSelector>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <fixedProbabilityWeight>1.0</fixedProbabilityWeight>
        ...
      </changeMoveSelector>
      <swapMoveSelector>
        <fixedProbabilityWeight>2.0</fixedProbabilityWeight>
        ...
      </swapMoveSelector>
    </unionMoveSelector>

The number of possible ChangeMoves is very different from the number of possible SwapMoves and furthermore it’s problem dependent. To give each individual Move the same selection chance (as opposed to each MoveSelector), use the FairSelectorProbabilityWeightFactory:

    <unionMoveSelector>
      <selectorProbabilityWeightFactoryClass>org.optaplanner.core.impl.heuristic.selector.common.decorator.FairSelectorProbabilityWeightFactory</selectorProbabilityWeightFactoryClass>
      <changeMoveSelector/>
      <swapMoveSelector/>
    </unionMoveSelector>

A cartesianProductMoveSelector selects a new CompositeMove. It builds that CompositeMove by selecting 1 Move per MoveSelector child and adding it to the CompositeMove.

Simplest configuration:

    <cartesianProductMoveSelector>
      <...MoveSelector/>
      <...MoveSelector/>
      <...MoveSelector/>
      ...
    </cartesianProductMoveSelector>

Advanced configuration:

    <cartesianProductMoveSelector>
      ... <!-- Normal selector properties -->
      <ignoreEmptyChildIterators>true</ignoreEmptyChildIterators>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        ...
      </changeMoveSelector>
      <swapMoveSelector>
        ...
      </swapMoveSelector>
      <...MoveSelector>
        ...
      </...MoveSelector>
      ...
    </cartesianProductMoveSelector>

The ignoreEmptyChildIterators property (true by default) will ignore every empty childMoveSelector to avoid returning no moves. For example: a Cartesian product of changeMoveSelector A and B, for which B is empty (because all its entities are immovable) returns no move if ignoreEmptyChildIterators is false and the moves of A if ignoreEmptyChildIterators is true.

To enforce that 2 child selectors use the same entity or value efficiently, use mimic selection, not move filtering.