Optimal sequences for pairwise comparisons: the graph of graphs approach

DOI10.1007/S10479-025-06752-ZMaRDI QIDQ6880718zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Zsombor Szádoczki, Sándor Bozóki

Publication date 18 December 2025

Published in Annals of Operations Research (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/S10479-025-06752-Z

zbMATH Keywords

graph of graphsincomplete pairwise comparison matrixpairwise comparison

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of graph theory (05C90) Individual preferences (91B08)

Review text

This article focuses on filling incomplete pairwise comparison matrices. The objective of the research is to determine sequences of questions for the analysts that ensure, whenever the decision maker stops answering the questions, that the calculated preferences are in some sense the closest to the decision makers' real preferences. The study employs numerical simulations with large sample sizes. It assumes no prior information available about the compared items, at most six alternatives, any number of comparisons, and connected graphs. Under these conditions, it provides the optimal filling patterns of incomplete pairwise comparison matrices. The filling structure represented by a star graph turned out to be optimal among the filling patterns with the same cardinality. The optimal graphs are always close to bipartite ones. Regular graphs also provide optimal solutions.

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