Dijkstra’s Algorithm

Slide Courtesy: Uwash, UT

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 Single-Source Shortest Path Problem

Single-Source Shortest Path Problem - The

problem of finding shortest paths from a source
vertex v to all other vertices in the graph.
 Applications
- Maps (Map Quest, Google Maps)
- Routing Systems
 Dijkstra's algorithm
Dijkstra's algorithm - is a solution to the single-source
shortest path problem in graph theory.

Works on both directed and undirected graphs. However,

all edges must have nonnegative weights.

Input: Weighted graph G={E,V} and source vertex v∈V,

such that all edge weights are nonnegative

Output: Lengths of shortest paths (or the shortest paths

themselves) from a given source vertex v∈V to all other
vertices
 Approach
• The algorithm computes for each vertex u the distance to u
from the start vertex v, that is, the weight of a shortest path
between v and u.
• the algorithm keeps track of the set of vertices for which the
distance has been computed, called the cloud C
• Every vertex has a label d associated with it. For any vertex u,
u.d stores an approximation of the distance between v and u.
The algorithm will update a u.d value when it finds a shorter
path from v to u.
• When a vertex u is added to the cloud, its label u.d is equal to
the actual (final) distance between the starting vertex v and
vertex u.
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 Dijkstra pseudocode
DIJKSTRA(G,w, s) RELAX(u, v,w)
1 INITIALIZE-SINGLE-SOURCE(G, s) 1 if v.d > u.d + w(u, v)
2S←∅ 2 v.d ← u.d + w(u, v)
3 Q ← G.V 3 v.π← u
4 while Q != ∅
5 u ← EXTRACT-MIN(Q)
6 S ← S ∪ {u}
7 for each vertex v ∈ Adj[u]
8 do RELAX(u, v,w)

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 Example: Initialization

Distance(source) = 0 0 ∞ Distance (all vertices

A
2
B but source) = ∞

4 1 3 10

2 2
∞ C D E ∞

5 8 ∞ 4 6

1
F G

∞ ∞

Pick vertex in List with minimum distance.

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 Example: Update neighbors'
distance
0 2
2
A B

4 1 3 10

2 2
∞ C D E ∞

5 8 1 4 6

1
Distance(B) = 2 F G
Distance(D) = 1
∞ ∞

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Example: Remove vertex with
minimum distance
0 2
2
A B

4 1 3 10

2 2
∞ C D E ∞

5 8 1 4 6

1
F G

∞ ∞

Pick vertex in List with minimum distance, i.e., D

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 Example: Update neighbors

0 2
2
A B

4 1 3 10

2 2
3 C D E 3

5 8 1 4 6

1
Distance(C) = 1 + 2 = 3 F G
Distance(E) = 1 + 2 = 3
Distance(F) = 1 + 8 = 9 9 5
Distance(G) = 1 + 4 = 5

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 Example: Continued...
Pick vertex in List with minimum distance (B) and update neighbors
0 2
2
A B

4 1 3 10

2 2
3 C D E 3

5 8 1 4 6
Note : distance(D) not
1
F G updated since D is
already known and
9 5 distance(E) not updated
since it is larger than
previously computed

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 Example: Continued...
Pick vertex List with minimum distance (E) and update neighbors

0 2
2
A B

4 1 3 10

2 2
3 C D E 3

5 8 1 4 6

1
F G
No updating
9 5

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 Example: Continued...
Pick vertex List with minimum distance (C) and update neighbors

0 2
2
A B

4 1 3 10

2 2
3 C D E 3

5 8 1 4 6

1
Distance(F) = 3 + 5 = 8 F G

8 5

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 Example: Continued...
Pick vertex List with minimum distance (G) and update neighbors

0 2
2
A B

4 1 3 10

2 2
3 C D E 3

5 8 1 4 6

1
F G
Previous distance
6 5
Distance(F) = min (8, 5+1) = 6

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 Example (end)

0 2
2
A B

4 1 3 10

2 2
3 C D E 3

5 8 1 4 6

1
F G

6 5
Pick vertex not in S with lowest cost (F) and update neighbors

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Another Example
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 Time Complexity: Using List
The simplest implementation of the Dijkstra's algorithm
stores vertices in an ordinary linked list or array
– Good for dense graphs (many edges)

• |V| vertices and |E| edges

• Initialization O(|V|)
• While loop O(|V|)
– Find and remove min distance vertices O(|V|)
• Potentially |E| updates
• Update costs O(1)

Total time O(|V2| + |E|) = O(|V2| )

 Time Complexity: Priority Queue
For sparse graphs, (i.e. graphs with much less than |V2| edges)
Dijkstra's implemented more efficiently by priority queue

• Initialization O(|V|) using O(|V|) buildHeap

• While loop O(|V|)
• Find and remove min distance vertices O(log |V|) using O(log |V|)
deleteMin

• Potentially |E| updates

• Update costs O(log |V|) using decreaseKey

Total time O(|V|log|V| + |E|log|V|) = O(|E|log|V|)

• |V| = O(|E|) assuming a connected graph

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