DIJKSTRA'S ALGORITHM
By Laksman Veeravagu and Luis Barrera
THE AUTHOR: EDSGER WYBE DIJKSTRA
"Computer Science is no more about computers than
astronomy is about telescopes."
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/
EDSGER WYBE DIJKSTRA
- May 11, 1930 – August 6, 2002
- Received the 1972 A. M. Turing Award, widely considered the
most prestigious award in computer science.
- The Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Sciences at
The University of Texas at Austin from 1984 until 2000
- Made a strong case against use of the GOTO statement in
programming languages and helped lead to its deprecation.
- Known for his many essays on programming.
SINGLE-SOURCE SHORTEST PATH PROBLEM
Single-Source Shortest Path Problem - The problem of
finding shortest paths from a source vertex v to all other
vertices in the graph.
DIJKSTRA'S ALGORITHM
Dijkstra's algorithm - is a solution to the single-source
shortest path problem in graph theory.
Works on both directed and undirected graphs. However, all
edges must have nonnegative weights.
Approach: Greedy
Input: Weighted graph G={E,V} and source vertex v∈V, such
that all edge weights are nonnegative
Output: Lengths of shortest paths (or the shortest paths
themselves) from a given source vertex v∈V to all other
vertices
DIJKSTRA'S ALGORITHM - PSEUDOCODE
dist[s]
←0
(distance
to
source
vertex
is
zero)
for
all
v
∈
V–{s}
do
dist[v]
←∞
(set
all
other
distances
to
infinity)
S←∅
(S,
the
set
of
visited
vertices
is
initially
empty)
Q←V
(Q,
the
queue
initially
contains
all
vertices)
while
Q
≠∅
(while
the
queue
is
not
empty)
do
u
←
mindistance(Q,dist)
(select
the
element
of
Q
with
the
min.
distance)
S←S∪{u}
(add
u
to
list
of
visited
vertices)
for
all
v
∈
neighbors[u]
do
if
dist[v]
>
dist[u]
+
w(u,
v)
(if
new
shortest
path
found)
then
d[v]
←d[u]
+
w(u,
v)
(set
new
value
of
shortest
path)
(if
desired,
add
traceback
code)
return
dist
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
DIJKSTRA ANIMATED EXAMPLE
IMPLEMENTATIONS AND RUNNING
TIMES
The simplest implementation is to store vertices in an array
or linked list. This will produce a running time of
O(|V|^2 + |E|)
For sparse graphs, or graphs with very few edges and many
nodes, it can be implemented more efficiently storing the
graph in an adjacency list using a binary heap or priority
queue. This will produce a running time of
O((|E|+|V|) log |V|)
DIJKSTRA'S ALGORITHM - WHY IT WORKS
¢ As with all greedy algorithms, we need to make sure that it
is a correct algorithm (e.g., it always returns the right solution
if it is given correct input).
A formal proof would take longer than this presentation, but
¢
we can understand how the argument works intuitively.
DIJKSTRA'S ALGORITHM - WHY IT WORKS
¢ To understand how it works, we’ll go over the
previous example again. However, we need two
mathematical results first:
¢ Lemma 1: Triangle inequality
If δ(u,v)
is
the
shortest
path
length
between
u
and
v,
δ(u,v)
≤
δ(u,x)
+
δ(x,v)
¢ Lemma 2:
The subpath of any shortest path is itself a shortest
path.
¢ The
key
is
to
understand
why
we
can
claim
that
any?me
we
put
a
new
vertex
in
S,
we
can
say
that
we
already
know
the
shortest
path
to
it.
¢ Now,
back
to
the
example…
DIJKSTRA'S ALGORITHM - WHY USE IT?
¢ As mentioned, Dijkstra’s algorithm calculates
the shortest path to every vertex.
¢ However, it is about as computationally
expensive to calculate the shortest path from
vertex u to every vertex using Dijkstra’s as it is
to calculate the shortest path to some particular
vertex v.
¢ Therefore, anytime we want to know the optimal
path to some other vertex from a determined
origin, we can use Dijkstra’s algorithm.
APPLICATIONS OF DIJKSTRA'S ALGORITHM
- Traffic Information Systems are most prominent use
- Mapping (Map Quest, Google Maps)
- Routing Systems
APPLICATIONS OF DIJKSTRA'S
ALGORITHM
One particularly relevant this
¢
week: epidemiology
¢Prof. Lauren Meyers (Biology
Dept.) uses networks to model the
spread of infectious diseases and
design prevention and response
strategies.
¢ Vertices represent individuals,
and edges their possible contacts.
It is useful to calculate how a
particular individual is connected
to others.
¢Knowing the shortest path
lengths to other individuals can be
a relevant indicator of the
potential of a particular individual
to infect others.
REFERENCES
¢ Dijkstra’s original paper:
E. W. Dijkstra. (1959) A Note on Two Problems in Connection with
Graphs. Numerische Mathematik, 1. 269-271.
¢ MIT OpenCourseware, 6.046J Introduction to Algorithms.
<
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-
Computer-Science/6-046JFall-2005/CourseHome/> Accessed
4/25/09
¢ Meyers, L.A. (2007) Contact network epidemiology: Bond
percolation applied to infectious disease prediction and control.
Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 44: 63-86.
¢ Department of Mathematics, University of Melbourne. Dijkstra’s
Algorithm.
<
http://www.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~moshe/620-261/dijkstra/
dijkstra.html > Accessed 4/25/09
