Data Structures and Algorithms

Graphs
Minimum Spanning Tree
Key Points - Lecture 19
• Dynamic Algorithms
• Optimal Binary Search Tree
• Used when
• some items are requested more often than others
• frequency for each item is known
• Minimises cost of all searches
• Build the search tree by
• Considering all trees of size 2, then 3, 4, ....
• Larger tree costs computed from smaller tree costs
• Sub-trees of optimal trees are optimal trees!
• Construct optimal search tree by saving root of each optimal sub-tree and tracing back
• O(n3) time / O(n2) space
Key Points - Lecture 19
• Other Problems using Dynamic Algorithms
• Matrix chain multiplication
• Find optimal parenthesisation of a matrix product
• Expressions within parentheses
• optimal parenthesisations themselves
• Optimal sub-structure characteristic of dynamic algorithms
• Similar to optimal binary search tree
• Longest common subsequence
• Longest string of symbols found in each of two sequences
• Optimal triangulation
• Least cost division of a polygon into triangles
• Maps to matrix chain multiplication
Graphs - Definitions
• Graph
• Set of vertices (nodes) and edges connecting them
• Write
G = ( V, E )
where
• V is a set of vertices: V = { vi }
• An edge connects two vertices: e = ( v i , vj )
• E is a set of edges: E = { (vi , vj ) }

Vertices

Edges
Graphs - Definitions
• Path
• A path, p, of length, k, is a sequence of connected
vertices
• p = <v0,v1,...,vk> where (vi,vi+1)  E

< i, c, f, g, h >
Path of length 5

< a, b >
Path of length 2
Graphs - Definitions
• Cycle
• A graph contains no cycles if there is no path
• p = <v0,v1,...,vk> such that v0 = vk

< i, c, f, g, i >
is a cycle
Graphs - Definitions
• Spanning Tree
• A spanning tree is a set of |V|-1 edges that connect all
the vertices of a graph

The red path connects

all vertices,
so it’s a spanning tree
Graphs - Definitions
• Minimum Spanning Tree
• Generally there is more than one spanning tree
• If a cost cij is associated with edge eij = (vi,vj)
then the minimum spanning tree is the set of edges Espan such that
C = ( cij |  eij  Espan )
is a minimum

Other ST’s can be formed ..

• Replace 2 with 7
• Replace 4 with 11

The red tree is the

Min ST
Graphs - Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Calculate the minimum spanning tree
• Put all the vertices into single node trees by themselves
• Put all the edges in a priority queue
• Repeat until we’ve constructed a spanning tree
• Extract cheapest edge
• If it forms a cycle, ignore it
else add it to the forest of trees
(it will join two trees into a larger tree)
• Return the spanning tree
Graphs - Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Calculate the minimum spanning tree
• Put all the vertices into single node trees by themselves
• Put all the edges in a priority queue
• Repeat until we’ve constructed a spanning tree
• Extract cheapest edge
• If it forms a cycle, ignore it
else add it to the forest of trees
(it will join two trees into a larger tree)
• Return the spanning tree
•

Note that this algorithm makes no attempt

• to be clever
• to make any sophisticated choice of the next edge
• it just tries the cheapest one!
Graphs - Kruskal’s Algorithm in C
Forest MinimumSpanningTree( Graph g, int n,
double **costs ) {
Forest T;
Queue q;
Edge e;
Initial Forest: single vertex trees
T = ConsForest( g );
q = ConsEdgeQueue( g, costs );
P Queue of edges
for(i=0;i<(n-1);i++) {
do {
e = ExtractCheapestEdge( q );
} while ( !Cycle( e, T ) );
AddEdge( T, e );
}
return T;
}
Graphs - Kruskal’s Algorithm in C
Forest MinimumSpanningTree( Graph g, int n,
double **costs ) {
Forest T;
Queue q; We need n-1 edges
Edge e; to fully connect (span)
T = ConsForest( g ); n vertices
q = ConsEdgeQueue( g, costs );
for(i=0;i<(n-1);i++) {
do {
e = ExtractCheapestEdge( q );
} while ( !Cycle( e, T ) );
AddEdge( T, e );
}
return T;
}
Graphs - Kruskal’s Algorithm in C
Forest MinimumSpanningTree( Graph g, int n,
double **costs ) {
Forest T;
Queue q;
Edge e;
T = ConsForest( g );
q = ConsEdgeQueue( g, costs );
for(i=0;i<(n-1);i++) {Try the cheapest edge
do {
e = ExtractCheapestEdge( q );
} while ( !Cycle( e, T ) );
AddEdge( T, e ); Until we find one that doesn’t
} form a cycle
return T;
... and add it to the forest
}
 Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Priority Queue
• We already know about this!!
Forest MinimumSpanningTree( Graph g, int n,
double **costs ) {
Forest T;
Queue q;
Edge e;
T = ConsForest( g );
Add to
q = ConsEdgeQueue( g, costs );
a heap here
for(i=0;i<(n-1);i++) {
do {
Extract from
e = ExtractCheapestEdge( q );
a heap here
} while ( !Cycle( e, T ) );
AddEdge( T, e );
}
return T;
}
 Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Cycle detection

Forest MinimumSpanningTree( Graph g, int n,

double **costs ) {
Forest T;
Queue q;
Edge e;
T = ConsForest( g );
q = ConsEdgeQueue( g, costs );
for(i=0;i<(n-1);i++) {
do {
e = ExtractCheapestEdge( q ); But how do
} while ( !Cycle( e, T ) ); we detect a
AddEdge( T, e ); cycle?
}
return T;
}
Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Cycle detection
• Uses a Union-find structure
• For which we need to understand a partition of a set
• Partition
• A set of sets of elements of a set
• Every element belongs to one of the sub-sets
• No element belongs to more than one sub-set
• Formally:
• Set, S = { si }
• Partition(S) = { Pi }, where Pi = { si }
  si S, si  Pj Pi are subsets of S
•  j, k P j  Pk = 
All si belong to one of the Pj
• S = Pj
None of the Pi
have common elements
S is the union of all the Pi
Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Partition
• The elements of each set of a partition
• are related by an equivalence relation
• equivalence relations are
• reflexive x~x
• transitive if x ~ y and y ~ z, then x ~ z
• symmetric
if x ~ y, then y ~ x

• The sets of a partition are equivalence classes

• Each element of the set is related to every other
element
Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Partitions
• In the MST algorithm,
the connected vertices form equivalence classes
• “Being connected” is the equivalence relation
• Initially, each vertex is in a class by itself
• As edges are added,
more vertices become related
and the equivalence classes grow
• Until finally all the vertices are in a single equivalence
class
Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Representatives
• One vertex in each class may be chosen as the
representative of that class
• We arrange the vertices in lists that lead to the
representative
• This is the union-find structure

• Cycle determination
Kruskal’s Algorithm
• Cycle determination
• If two vertices have the same representative,
they’re already connected and adding a further
connection between them is pointless
• Procedure:
• For each end-point of the edge that you’re going to
add
• follow the lists and find its representative
• if the two representatives are equal,
then the edge will form a cycle
Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation

All the vertices are in

single element trees

Each vertex is its

own representative
Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation

All the vertices are in

single element trees

Add it to the forest,

The cheapest edge joining h and g into a
is h-g 2-element tree
 Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation

The cheapest edge

is h-g

Add it to the forest, Choose g as its

joining h and g into a representative
2-element tree
Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation
The next cheapest edge
is c-i
Add it to the forest,
joining c and i into a
2-element tree

Choose c as its
representative

Our forest now has 2 two-element trees

and 5 single vertex ones
Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation
The next cheapest edge
is a-b
Add it to the forest,
joining a and b into a
2-element tree

Choose b as its
representative

Our forest now has 3 two-element trees

and 4 single vertex ones
Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation
The next cheapest edge
is c-f
Add it to the forest,
merging two
2-element trees

Choose the rep of one

as its representative
Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation

The next cheapest edge

is g-i
The rep of g is c

The rep of i is also c

 g-i forms a cycle

It’s clearly not needed!

Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation

The next cheapest edge

is c-d
The rep of c is c

The rep of d is d

 c-d joins two

trees, so we add it

.. and keep c as the representative

Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation
The next cheapest edge
is h-i

The rep of h is c

The rep of i is c

 h-i forms a cycle,

so we skip it
Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation
The next cheapest edge
is a-h

The rep of a is b

The rep of h is c

 a-h joins two trees,

and we add it
Kruskal’s Algorithm in operation
The next cheapest edge
is b-c But b-c forms a cycle

So add d-e instead

... and we now have a spanning tree

Greedy Algorithms
• At no stage did we attempt to “look ahead”
• We simply made the naïve choice
• Choose the cheapest edge!
• MST is an example of a greedy algorithm
• Greedy algorithms
• Take the “best” choice at each step
• Don’t look ahead and try alternatives
• Don’t work in many situations
• Try playing chess with a greedy approach!
• Are often difficult to prove
• because of their naive approach
• what if we made this other (more expensive) choice
now and later on ..... ???
Proving Greedy Algorithms
• MST Proof
• “Proof by contradiction” is usually the best approach!
• Note that
• any edge creating a cycle is not needed
 Each edge must join two sub-trees
• Suppose that the next cheapest edge, ex, would join trees Ta
and Tb
• Suppose that instead of ex we choose ez - a more expensive
edge, which joins Ta and Tc
• But we still need to join Tb to Ta or some other tree to which
Ta is connected
• The cheapest way to do this is to add ex
• So we should have added ex instead of ez
• Proving that the greedy approach is correct for MST
MST - Time complexity
• Steps
• Initialise forest O( |V| )
• Sort edges O( |E|log|E| )
• Check edge for cycles O( |V| ) x
• Number of edges O( |V| ) O( |V|2 )
• Total O( |V|+|E|log|E|+|V|2 )
• Since |E| = O( |V|2 ) O( |V|2 log|V| )

• Thus we would class MST as O( n2 log n )

for a graph with n vertices
• This is an upper bound,
some improvements on this are known ...
• Prim’s Algorithm can be O( |E|+|V|log|V| )
using Fibonacci heaps
• even better variants are known for restricted cases,
such as sparse graphs ( |E| |V| )
MST - Time complexity
• Steps
• Initialise forest O( |V| )
• Sort edges Here’s O( the|E|log|E| )
• Check edge“professionals
for cycles O( |V| ) xread textbooks”
• Number of edgestheme O( recurring
|V| ) again!
O( |V| 2
)
• Total O( |V|+|E|log|E|+|V|2 )
• Since |E| = O( |V|2 ) O( |V|2 log|V| )

• Thus we would class MST as O( n2 log n )

for a graph with n vertices
• This is an upper bound,
some improvements on this are known ...
• Prim’s Algorithm can be O( |E|+|V|log|V| )
using Fibonacci heaps
• even better variants are known for restricted cases,
such as sparse graphs ( |E| |V| )