Let S:A→B and T:A→B be given non‐self mappings, where A and B are non‐empty subsets of a metric space. As S and T are non‐self mappings, the equations Sx=x and Tx=x do not necessarily have a common solution, called a common fixed point of the mappings S and T. Therefore, in such cases of non‐existence of a common solution, it is attempted to find an element x that is closest to both Sx and Tx in some sense. Indeed, common best proximity point theorems explore the existence of such optimal solutions, known as common best proximity points, to the equations Sx=x and Tx=x when there is no common solution. It is remarked that the functions x→d(x,Sx) and x→d(x,Tx) gauge the error involved for an approximate solution of the equations Sx=x and Tx=x. In view of the fact that, for any element x in A, the distance between x and Sx, and the distance between x and Tx are at least the distance between the sets A and B, a common best proximity point theorem achieves global minimum of both functions x→d(x,Sx) and x→d(x,Tx) by stipulating a common approximate solution of the equations Sx=x and Tx=x to fulfill the condition that d(x,Sx)=d(x,Tx)=d(A,B). The purpose of this article is to elicit common best proximity point theorems for pairs of contractive non‐self mappings and for pairs of contraction non‐self mappings, yielding common optimal approximate solutions of certain fixed point equations. Besides establishing the existence of common best proximity points, iterative algorithms are also furnished to determine such optimal approximate solutions.
