Pulse width modulation (PWM) techniques are increasingly employed in power electronic circuits. Among the various PWM methods used, selective harmonic elimination PWM (SHEPWM) method is popular and it is widely accepted for its better harmonic elimination capability and its ability to maintain output voltage regulation. However, in this method difficulty persists in the identi fication of switching instants as it involves non-linear transcendental equations for obtaining the desired solution. In this paper, bacterial foraging algorithm (BFA) method is proposed for switching angle selection in PWM inverter. The problem of voltage harmonic elimination together with output voltage regulation is drafted as an optimization task and the solution is sought through the proposed method. Extensive simulations are carried out using MATLAB/SIMULINK environment under various operating points with different switching pulses per half cycle. To demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method, BFA results are compared with other existing techniques such as Genetic Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization method. Further, the obtained simulation results are validated through experimental findings. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.