NIST

adjacency-list representation

(data structure)

Definition: A representation of a directed graph with n vertices using an array of n lists of vertices. List i contains vertex j if there is an edge from vertex i to vertex j. A weighted graph may be represented with a list of vertex/weight pairs. An undirected graph may be represented by having vertex j in the list for vertex i and vertex i in the list for vertex j.

See also adjacency-matrix representation, sparse graph.

Note: Suppose we have a directed graph with four vertices. Here are adjacency-matrix and adjacency-list representations. The arrow (->) means a link in a list.

    1 2 3 4
1 1 1 1 1
2 1 0 0 0
3 0 1 0 1
4 0 1 1 0

 1  -> 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4
2 -> 1
3 -> 2 -> 4
4 -> 2 -> 3

One variant is to have an array of columns, rather than rows, with the list going "down". The adjacency-list representation is more compact for a sparse matrix.

Authors: BB,PEB

Implementation

Sedgewick and Wayne "Algorithms" 4th edition's implementation (Java).
Go to the Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures home page.

If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.

Entry modified 15 October 2021.
HTML page formatted Fri Oct 15 16:48:46 2021.

Cite this as:
Bob Bockholt and Paul E. Black, "adjacency-list representation", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed. 15 October 2021. (accessed TODAY) Available from: https://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/adjacencyListRep.html