Hey guys! Welcome to a new blog today we will be learning about graph data structure. The graph is one of the most realistic data structures by realistic what I mean I will be telling it later on.
What are Graphs?
The graphs simply mean connections. It is a pictorial representation of objects and Pairs are connected. If not all then most of them. Before going into details we need to understand why we need graph data structure and the very usage of graph data structure.
Graphs have:-
Vertices - Every node of a graph is its vertices. so talking about this diagram the vertices of these graphs will be {a,b,c,d,e}
Edges - Edges are the paths between the two vertices. eg. {ab,ac, bd,cd,de}
Path- It is the sequence of edges like in the above diagram {ABDE} is a path.
Importance of Graphs Data Structure
When there is a relationship between the different components and graphs data structure comes in handy as it helps in modelling and storing data.
Now the question is why graphs can do that. Well, Graphs can represent complex relationships and connections more flexibly and intuitively in comparison to other data structures like arrays, trees, and so on.
Examples
Graphs can be used to represent the road network of the city where vertices of the graph can represent the intersections between roads and the edges represent the roads themselves.
In fact, on social networking sites graphs have their importance as their vertices represent individuals and edges represent their connections. So all your social media platforms you use like Instagram. Facebook, Snapchat, etc, implement graphs in their code base.
That is why I said the graph is the realistic data structure above.
Types of Graphs
Graphs are of two types directed and undirected.
Directed graphs - It is also known as digraphs, It is a type of graph that consists of a set of vertices connected by edges where edges have a direction associated with them.
Undirected Graph - It is the opposite of the directed one, as it is a graph where edges have no directions associated with them. It simply means that the edges of an undirected graph do not point to any directed direction.
Undirected graphs do not have any concept of "incoming" and "outgoing" and all edges will be having two-way connections.
Sum Up
This article was all about the introduction of the graph data structure. In the next article of this series, we will be covering graph implementation.
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