Graph DFS
Last updated
Last updated
Learn about one of the more famous graph algorithms
Learn uses of DFS
When searching a graph, one of the approaches is called depth first search. This "dives" "down" the graph as far as it can before needing to backtrack and explore another branch.
The algorithm never attempts to explore a vert that it either has explored or is exploring.
For example, when starting from the upper left, the numbers on this graph show a vertex visitation order in a DFS:
The bold lines show with edges were followed. (The thin edges were not followed since their destination nodes had already been visited.)
(Of course, the exact order will vary depending on which branches get taken first and which vertex is the starting vertex.)
Finding Minimum Spanning Trees of weighted graphs
Path finding
Detecting cycles in graphs
Topological sorting, useful for scheduling sequences of dependent jobs
Solving and generating mazes
As the graph is explored, it's useful to color verts as you arrive at them and as you leave them behind as "already searched".
Commonly, unvisited verts are white, verts whose neighbors are being explored are gray, and verts with no unexplored neighbors are black.
Since we want to pursue leads in the graph as far as we can, and then "back up" to an earlier branch point to explore that way, recursion is a good approach to help "remember" where we left off.
Looking at it with pseudocode to make the recursion more apparent: