An heuristic evaluation function is some form of guess at an intermediate state about the eventual outcome of a search. This is used in a heuristic search to act as a guide as to the best order to explore many different options. For example, whilst searching for shortest routes between places, we might use the Euclidean distance between two cities as a heuristic for the eventual shortest road distance well before we explore the potential routes between them.
Used in Chap. 1: page 4; Chap. 4: pages 42, 44, 47, 48, 49, 53, 54, 55; Chap. 6: page 85; Chap. 7: page 98; Chap. 10: page 132; Chap. 11: pages 148, 149, 150, 152, 157; Chap. 12: page 176; Chap. 13: page 192; Chap. 14: pages 217, 218; Chap. 15: pages 225, 227, 234; Chap. 16: pages 237, 244; Chap. 18: pages 272, 273, 275, 280; Chap. 19: page 306; Chap. 21: pages 330, 331, 336, 340; Chap. 22: page 346
Also known as heuristic evaluation, heuristic information, heuristics