Displaying genetic algorithms on data

Question

It is useful for explaining how a genetic algorithms works to display things like in the two following pictures.

In those pictures, it could be useful to have two more features.

1. Display dotted horizontal lines at the beginning and/or the end so as to indicate that data are not totally displayed.
2. Having an easy way to change background colors so as to indicate different techniques used.

How can all of this be achieved?

Here is a code for start some enhancements. This code comes from this page.

\documentclass{article}
    \usepackage{tikz}
    \usepackage{xstring}

    \tikzset{
        raw sort entry/.style={rectangle, thick, draw, node distance=1.5em},
        sort entry black/.style={raw sort entry, black, fill=white},
        sort entry blackgray/.style={raw sort entry, black, fill=gray!25},
        s1/.style={raw sort entry, red, fill=yellow!30},
        s2/.style={raw sort entry, blue, fill=green!20},
        s3/.style={raw sort entry, violet, fill=orange!25}
    }

    \newcommand*{\List}[2][sort entry black]{%
        \par\noindent%
        \edef\listtoprocess{#2}%
        \def\ListToProcess{}%
        \begin{tikzpicture}[inner sep=2pt, outer sep=0]
            \foreach \content in \listtoprocess{
                \IfSubStr{\content}{/}{% true
                    \xdef\ListToProcess{\ListToProcess,\content}
                }{%                      false
                    \xdef\ListToProcess{\ListToProcess,#1/\content}
                }
            }
            \StrGobbleLeft{\ListToProcess}{1}[\ListToProcess]% removes the first comma (\listToProcess is empty at the start)
            \foreach [count=\i] \Style/\Value in \ListToProcess {
                \ifnum\i=1\relax
                    \node [raw sort entry, \Style] (sortnode\i) {\Value};
                \else
                    \node [raw sort entry, right of=sortnode\number\numexpr\i-1\relax, \Style] (sortnode\i) {\Value};
                \fi
            }
        \end{tikzpicture}%
    }

\begin{document}

\List{1, 1, 1, 1, 1, s1/2, s1/2, s1/2, 3, 3}

\end{document}

Answer 1

This could give you a start.

Granted, the approach to draw the vertical lines isn’t very sophisticated. Maybe something similar to \setLines of another pgfgantt answer of mine could be a better kind of solution.

Also the needed \tikzset after the first row could be solved better. This is a problem on a meta level as we do have a chain of chains. TikZ solves this in a much better way for the actual chains.

Code

\documentclass[tikz,convert=false]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{chains}
\makeatletter
\tikzset{
  on chain/.append code={
    \ifnum\c@pgf@counta=1\relax
      \tikzset{every first on chain/.try}%
    \fi
  },
  start chain/.append code={%
    \edef\pgf@marshal{\noexpand\tikzset{execute at end scope={\noexpand\xdef\noexpand\tikzpreviouschain{\tikz@lib@chain@name}}}}%
    \pgf@marshal
  }
}
\def\listset{\pgfqkeys{/List}}
\tikzset{
  raw sort entry/.style={rectangle, thick, draw, font=\strut,text depth=+0pt,minimum width=+1.2em, inner xsep=+0pt},
  sort entry black/.style={raw sort entry, black, fill=white},
  sort entry blackgray/.style={raw sort entry, black, fill=gray!25},
  s1/.style={raw sort entry, fill=yellow!30},
  s2/.style={raw sort entry, fill=green!20},
  s3/.style={raw sort entry, fill=orange!25},
  g/.style={raw sort entry, fill=lightgray}
}
\listset{
  chain name/.initial=,
  do/.style={
    /utils/exec={\begin{scope}[start chain=\pgfkeysvalueof{/List/chain name}]},
    int/do/.list={#1},
    /utils/exec=\end{scope},
  },
  int/do/.code={%
    \pgfutil@ifnextchar[\tikz@List@int@@do{\tikz@List@int@@do[]}#1\pgf@stop
  }
}
\def\tikz@List@int@@do[#1]#2\pgf@stop{%
  \node[on chain={\pgfkeysvalueof{/List/chain name}},#1] {#2};
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
  node distance=+1em and +0pt,
  outer xsep=+0pt,
  outer ysep=+0pt,
  every node/.append style={raw sort entry}
]
 \listset{chain name=r1,do={1, [g]z, 1, 1, 1, [s1]2, [s2]2, [s3]2, 3, 3, 1, 1, [g]y, 1, 1, [s3]2, [s1]2, [s2]2, 3, 3}}
 \tikzset{every first on chain/.style={below=of \tikzpreviouschain-begin}}
 \listset{chain name=r2, do={1, 1, [g]y, 1, 1, [s3]2, [s1]2, [s2]2, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, [g]x, 1, [s2]2, [s3]2, [s1]2, 3, 3}}
 \listset{chain name=r3, do={1, 1, 1, [g]x, 1, [s2]2, [s3]2, [s1]2, 3, 3, 1, [g]z, 1, 1, 1, [s1]2, [s2]2, [s3]2, 3, 3}}

 \foreach \chain in {r1, r2, r3}{
   \draw[thick, densely dotted] (\chain-begin.north west) -- ++ (left:10pt)
                                (\chain-begin.south west) -- ++ (left:10pt)
                                (\chain-end.north east) -- ++ (right:10pt)
                                (\chain-end.south east) -- ++ (right:10pt)
   ;
 }
 \foreach \column in {0,5,10,...,20}{
   \ifnum\column=0
     \draw[dash pattern=on \pgflinewidth off \pgflinewidth] ([yshift=1em]r1-begin.north west) -- ([yshift=-1em]r3-begin.south west);
   \else\ifodd\column
       \draw[densely dotted] ([yshift=.75em]r1-\column.north east) -- ([yshift=-.75em]r3-\column.south east);
     \else
       \draw[dash pattern=on \pgflinewidth off \pgflinewidth] ([yshift=1em]r1-\column.north east) -- ([yshift=-1em]r3-\column.south east);
     \fi
   \fi}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Output