section_path: Techniques/Search and optimization/State space search
section_name: State space search
paragraph_text: State space search
  
  State space search searches through a tree of possible states to try to find a goal state. For example, planning algorithms search through trees of goals and subgoals, attempting to find a path to a target goal, a process called means-ends analysis.
  
  Simple exhaustive searches are rarely sufficient for most real-world problems: the search space (the number of places to search) quickly grows to astronomical numbers. The result is a search that is too slow or never completes. " Heuristics " or "rules of thumb" can help prioritize choices that are more likely to reach a goal.
  
  Adversarial search is used for game-playing programs, such as chess or Go. It searches through a tree of possible moves and counter-moves, looking for a winning position.