Efficient coding of labeled directed acyclic graphs

Abstract

 We use an adaptation of the Prüfer code for trees to encode labeled directed acyclic graphs, which are often abbreviated to DAGs (or ADGs). In this paper, each DAG is assigned a unique DAG code, which allows an easy handling for several purposes. The set of all possible DAG codes (and therefore the set of all DAGs) for a fixed number of n vertices can be generated efficiently. Furthermore, we are able to rank DAGs, i.e., we provide an algorithm that assigns every DAG a unique number in the set {0,…,a _n −1}, where a _n is the cardinality of the set of labeled DAGs with n≥1 vertices, and we are able to unrank DAGs, which is the inverse operation. We also gain recurrence relations, which can be used to calculate a _n and a _n,q , i.e., the number of DAGs with n vertices and q edges. Finally, it is possible to generate, enumerate, rank and unrank DAGs with given number of edges and also DAGs with bounded indegree.