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Prims Algorithm

Prim's algorithm finds the minimum spanning tree of a connected weighted graph. It works by building up the minimum spanning tree one vertex at a time, starting from an arbitrary vertex, and at each step adding the minimum weight edge that connects the spanning tree to vertices not yet included. The algorithm is illustrated with an example graph.

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123 views7 pages

Prims Algorithm

Prim's algorithm finds the minimum spanning tree of a connected weighted graph. It works by building up the minimum spanning tree one vertex at a time, starting from an arbitrary vertex, and at each step adding the minimum weight edge that connects the spanning tree to vertices not yet included. The algorithm is illustrated with an example graph.

Uploaded by

RamaKrishna Erroju
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Prim’s Algorithm

The working of Prim’s algorithm can be described by using the following


steps:

Step 1: Determine an arbitrary vertex as the starting vertex of the MST.


Step 2: Follow steps 3 to 5 till there are vertices that are not included in the
MST (known as fringe vertex).
Step 3: Find edges connecting any tree vertex with the fringe vertices.
Step 4: Find the minimum among these edges.
Step 5: Add the chosen edge to the MST if it does not form any cycle.
Step 6: Return the MST and exit

Illustration of Prim’s Algorithm:


Consider the following graph as an example for which we need to find the
Minimum Spanning Tree (MST).

Example of a graph
Step 1: Firstly, we select an arbitrary vertex that acts as the starting vertex
of the Minimum Spanning Tree. Here we have selected vertex 0 as the
starting vertex.

0 is selected as starting vertex

Step 2: All the edges connecting the incomplete MST and other vertices are
the edges {0, 1} and {0, 7}. Between these two the edge with minimum
weight is {0, 1}. So include the edge and vertex 1 in the MST.

1 is added to the MST


Step 3: The edges connecting the incomplete MST to other vertices are {0,
7}, {1, 7} and {1, 2}. Among these edges the minimum weight is 8 which is of
the edges {0, 7} and {1, 2}. Let us here include the edge {0, 7} and the vertex
7 in the MST. [We could have also included edge {1, 2} and vertex 2 in the
MST].

7 is added in the MST

Step 4: The edges that connect the incomplete MST with the fringe vertices
are {1, 2}, {7, 6} and {7, 8}. Add the edge {7, 6} and the vertex 6 in the MST
as it has the least weight (i.e., 1).

6 is added in the MST


Step 5: The connecting edges now are {7, 8}, {1, 2}, {6, 8} and {6, 5}.
Include edge {6, 5} and vertex 5 in the MST as the edge has the minimum
weight (i.e., 2) among them.

Include vertex 5 in the MST

Step 6: Among the current connecting edges, the edge {5, 2} has the
minimum weight. So include that edge and the vertex 2 in the MST.

Include vertex 2 in the MST


Step 7: The connecting edges between the incomplete MST and the other
edges are {2, 8}, {2, 3}, {5, 3} and {5, 4}. The edge with minimum weight is
edge {2, 8} which has weight 2. So include this edge and the vertex 8 in the
MST.

Add vertex 8 in the MST

Step 8: See here that the edges {7, 8} and {2, 3} both have same weight
which are minimum. But 7 is already part of MST. So we will consider the
edge {2, 3} and include that edge and vertex 3 in the MST.

Include vertex 3 in MST


Step 9: Only the vertex 4 remains to be included. The minimum weighted
edge from the incomplete MST to 4 is {3, 4}.

Include vertex 4 in the MST

The final structure of the MST is as follows and the weight of the edges of
the MST is (4 + 8 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 7 + 9) = 37.

The structure of the MST formed using the above method

Note: If we had selected the edge {1, 2} in the third step then the MST
would look like the following.
Structure of the alternate MST if we had selected edge {1, 2} in the MST

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