Lecture 35-38

● Introduction to Graphs

IT205: Data Structures (AY 2024/25 Sem II Sec B) — Dr. Arpit Rana
Graph: Definition

A graph G is a non-linear data structure made up of a set of nodes (vertices, i.e., V) and a set of
edges (arcs, i.e., E) that connect them.
● Example, G = (V, E):
○ V = {A, B, C, D}
○ E = {(A,B), (A,C), (A,D), (B,D), (C,D)}

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Complexity of Graph-based Algorithms

When we characterize the running time of a graph algorithm on a given graph G = (V, E), we
usually measure the size of the input in terms of

● the number of vertices, | V |, and

● the number of edges, | E |

Hence, the input is denoted using two parameters and not just one.

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Types of Graph

i.e., E = ɸ i.e., E = ɸ and | V | = 1

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Types of Graph

● Each edge is specified by a pair of nodes.

● If the pair of nodes that make up the edges are ordered pairs, the graph is said to be a
directed graph (or digraph), otherwise undirected graph.

Undirected Graph Directed Graph

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Types of Graph

● The graph in which from one node we can visit any other node in the graph is known as a
connected graph.
○ The graph in which from each node there is an edge to each other node is known as
fully connected (or complete) graph..
● The graph in which at least one node is not reachable from a node is known as a
disconnected graph.

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Types of Graph

● A graph in which each edge is associated with a weight given by a weight function w: E→R
is known as a weighted graph.
○ Weight typically shows cost of traversing, for example, weights are distances
between cities

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Types of Graph

● A graph in which vertex can be divided into two sets such that vertex in each set does not
contain any edge between them is known as bipartite graph.

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Tree vs. Graphs

Two structures are similar in the sense that they represent connectivity among the nodes

● Both belong to the category of non-linear data structures

● They are different in the sense that tree is acyclic whereas a graph usably have cycle(s).

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Degree of a Node in a Graph

The degree of a node is the number of edges the node is used

to define.
● In the example below:
○ Degree 2: B and C
○ Degree 3: A and D
● A and D have odd degree, and B and C have even degree
● Can also define in-degree and out-degree (defined for
digraphs)
○ In-degree: Number of edges pointing to a node
○ Out-degree: Number of edges pointing from a node
● A node with degree 0 is called an isolated node.

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Representation of Graphs

A graph G (V, E) can be represented in two standard ways

● Adjacency List (Linked) representation

Used when the graph is sparse, i.e., | E | < < | V |2

● Adjacency Matrix representation.

Used when the graph is dense, i.e., | E | ~ | V |2

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Representation of Undirected Graphs

An undirected
graph G (V, E)
with | V | = 5,
and | E | = 7.
The sum of all
adjacency lists
is 2.| E |.

A directed
graph G (V, E)
with | V | = 6,
and | E | = 8.
The sum of all
adjacency lists
is | E |.

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Representation of Various Types of Graphs as Adjacency Matrix

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Representation of Weighted Digraphs as Adjacency List

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Adjacency List vs. Adjacency Matrix

● A potential disadvantage of adjacency list is that it provides no quicker way to find whether
an edge (u, v) is present in a graph G. (it take 𝚯 (|V| + |E|) time).

○ Some improvements in search are still possible.

● Adjacency matrix solves this problem on the cost of 𝚯 (|V|2) space.

● In case of unweighted graphs, adjacency matrix require just one bit per entry (0 or 1) which
makes it more space efficient for smaller graphs.

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Graph Traversals: Breadth-First Search (BFS)

● Given a graph G = (V, E) and a source vertex s, BFS explores the edges of G to “discover”
every vertex that is reachable from s.

○ It computes the distance from s to each reachable vertex v: the smallest number of
edges needed to go from s to v.

○ Starting from s, the algorithm first discovers all neighbors of s which have distance 1,
then discovers vertices with distance 2, and so on, until it has discovered every vertex
reachable from s.

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Graph Traversals: Breadth-First Search (BFS)

○ It uses a FIFO queue containing some vertices at a distance k, possibly followed by

some vertices at distance k+1.
○ To keep track of progress, BFS colors each vertex white (initialized), gray (discovered,
i.e., added to the queue), and black (explored, i.e., all vertex’s edges have been
explored).
○ BFS constructs a breadth-first tree, initially containing only its root, which is the
source vertex s.
■ Whenever the search discovers a white vertex v in the course of scanning the
adjacency list of a gray vertex u, the vertex v and the edge (u, v) are added in the
tree.
■ We say that u is the predecessor or parent of v in the breadth-first tree.

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Graph Traversals: Breadth-First Search (BFS)

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Graph Traversals: Breadth-First Search (BFS)

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Analysis of Breadth-First Search

● A vertex is enqueued and dequeued at most once which takes O (1) time. So, the total time
devoted to queue operations is O (|V|).

● The procedure scans the adjacency list of each vertex when the vertex is dequeued, so, at
most once.

○ The sum of the lengths of all | V | adjacency lists is 𝚯 (|E|), total time spent in
scanning adjacency lists is O (|V| + |E|).

● Thus the total running time of BFS procedure is O (|V| + |E|).

Alternatively, a graph can be traversed using Depth-First Search (similar to in-order traversal of
the tree). I am leaving this topic as DIY exercise..

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Other Operations on a Graph

● Insertion
○ To insert a vertex and hence establishing connectivity with other vertices in the
existing graph.
○ To insert an edge between two vertices in the graph.
● Deletion
○ To delete a vertex from the graph.
○ To delete an edge from the graph.
● Merging
○ To merge two graphs G1 and G2 into a single graph.

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Insertion Into an Undirected Graph

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Insertion Into a Digraph

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Insertion Into a Graph: Matrix Representation

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Deletion from a Graph

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End of the Course
● Keep Learning!!