I have 800 lists with an order of names. The lists can range anywhere from 0 to 1000 items long
Ex:
[Bob, Sam, Mike, John, Adams]
[Bob, Washington, John, Adams]
[Remy, Alex]
[Sanders, Jeffrey, Bob]
The idea is to find out the general order of names.
So were I given these four, the 'known' longest order would be:
[Sanders, Jeffrey, Bob, Sam, Mike, John, Adams.]
Everything else I basically can't use as I can't place them
That's already difficult as is with 800 lists, as maybe something can't be placed currently, but after incorporating a few hundred lists, maybe that thing I 'left aside' can now be incorporated, so I would have to go back.
To make things worse, there is a big caveat, and this kinda messes up some methods. That if in the rare case the names happened at the 'exact same time', then their order might be messed up in another list.
For example:
If Remy & Alex showed up at the exact same time, it might be
[Alex, Remy, Samuel]
in one list, and
[Ron, Bob, Remy, Alex]
in another list. Where Alex and Remy are switched. So we can't use them. It's rare, but it can happen with multiple together.
Any ideas are appreciated it, I'm trying to figure it out. Seems like a mix of sorting and regression, but I can't quite place my thumb on it.
Thanks