The use of the heuristic method for solving the knapsack problem

The basic concepts and possibilities of solving the knapsack problem by the heuristic method are presented and substantiated. This problem is being actively researched; its popularity is due to the large number of applications. The main areas of application are in the planning and management of economic, production and transport systems. The implementing method and algorithm are described. The research consists in the development of a heuristic method for solving the knapsack problem, which gives approximate solutions to the problem. The problem considered is NP-complete, and there is no polynomial algorithm that solves it in a reasonable time. The computational characteristics of the algorithm obtained experimentally on various sets of generated initial data are presented in the paper. Recommendations for its practical application in real problems are given.