Graphs Lecture

G RA P H S
GRAPHS
• A graph can be thought of as a data structure that is used to
describe relationships between entities.
• An entity can be any item that has a distinctive and independent
existence. It could either be an actual physical object or an
abstract idea. For example, an entity can be a person, place or an
organization about which data can be stored.
GRAPHS
•In the computing world, graphs have become ubiquitous
owing to their ability to not only provide abstractions to real
life but also demonstrate complicated relationships with ease.
As such, a variety of practical problems can be represented as
graphs. For example, a linked structure of websites can be
viewed as a graph.
• Every graph is a set of points referred to as vertices or nodes which are connected
using lines called edges. The vertices represent entities in a graph. Edges, on the
other hand, express relationships between entities. Hence, while nodes model
entities, edges model relationships in a network graph. A graph G with a set
of V vertices together with a set of E edges is represented as G= (V, E). Both
vertices and edges can have additional attributes that are used to describe the
entities and relationships. Figure 1 depicts a simple graph with five nodes and six
edges.
• In real-world applications of graphs, an edge might represent professional
relationships that exist between people in linkedin or a personal relationship
on a social media platform such as facebook or instagram.
• Graphs can broadly be categorized into undirected (fig 2a)
or directed (fig 2b). An undirected graph is directionless. This means that
the edges have no directions. In other words, the relationship is mutual.
For example, a facebook or a linkedin connection. Contrarily, edges of
directed graphs have directions associated with them. An asymmetric
relationship between a boss and an employee or a teacher and a student
can be represented as a directed graph in data structure. Graphs can also
be weighted (fig 2c) indicating real values associated with the edges.
Depending upon the specific use of the graph, edge weights may
represent quantities such as distance, cost, similarity etc.
REPRESENTING GRAPHS
•A graph can be represented using 3 data structures- adjacency matrix,

adjacency list and adjacency set.
• An adjacency matrix can be thought of as a table with rows and columns. The

row labels and column labels represent the nodes of a graph. An adjacency
matrix is a square matrix where the number of rows, columns and nodes are
the same. Each cell of the matrix represents an edge or the relationship between
two given nodes. For example, adjacency matrix aij represents the number of
links from i to j, given two nodes i and j.
A B C D E
A 0 0 0 0 1
B 0 0 1 0 0
C 0 1 0 0 1
D 1 0 0 1 0
E 0 1 1 0 0
• The adjacency matrix for a directed graph is shown in fig 3. Observe
that it is a square matrix in which the number of rows, columns and
nodes remain the same (5 in this case). Each row and column
correspond to a node or a vertex of a graph. The cells within the
matrix represent the connection that exists between nodes. Since, in
the given directed graph, no node is connected to itself, all cells
lying on the diagonal of the matrix are marked zero. For the rest of
the cells, if there exists a directed edge from a given node to another,
then the corresponding cell will be marked one else zero.
• To understand how an undirected graph can be represented
using an adjacency matrix, consider a small undirected graph
with five vertices (fig 4). Here, A is connected to B, but B is
connected to A as well. Hence, both the cells i.E., The one with
source A destination B and the other one with source B
destination A are marked one. This suffices the requirement of
an undirected edge. Observe that the second entry is at a
mirrored location across the main diagonal.
•In case of a weighted graph, the cells are marked with
edge weights instead of ones. In fig 5, the weight assigned
to the edge connecting nodes B and D is 3. Hence, the
corresponding cells in the adjacency matrix i.E. Row B
column D and row D column B are marked 3.
• In adjacency list representation of a graph, every vertex is represented
as a node object. The node may either contain data or a reference to a
linked list. This linked list provides a list of all nodes that are adjacent to
the current node. Consider a graph containing an edge connecting node
A and node B. Then, the node A will be available in node b’s linked list.
Fig 6 shows a sample graph of 5 nodes and its corresponding adjacency
list.
•Note that the list corresponding to node E is empty
while lists corresponding to nodes B and D have 2
entries each.
•Similarly, adjacency lists for an undirected graph can
also be constructed. Fig 7 provides an example of an
undirected graph along with its adjacency list for better
understanding.
•Adjacency list enables faster search process in
comparison to adjacency matrix. However, it is not the
best representation of graphs especially when it comes
to adding or removing nodes. For example, deleting a
node would involve looking through all the adjacency
lists to remove a particular node from all lists.
• The adjacency set mitigates a few of the challenges posed by
adjacency list. Adjacency set is quite similar to adjacency list
except for the difference that instead of a linked list; a set of
adjacent vertices is provided. Adjacency list and set are often
used for sparse graphs with few connections between nodes.
Contrarily, adjacency matrix works well for well-connected
graphs comprising many nodes.
• This brings us to the end of the blog on graph in data structure.
We hope you found this helpful. If you wish to learn more
such concepts, you can check out
great learning academy’s free online courses.
• Https://www.Mygreatlearning.Com/blog/representing-grap
hs-in-data-structures/

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G RA P H S

•A graph can be represented using 3 data structures- adjacency matrix,

• An adjacency matrix can be thought of as a table with rows and columns. The

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