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Tutorial 11: Dijkstra's algorithm

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Tutorial ID11
TitleDijkstra's algorithm

What is Dijkstra's algorithm?

Dijkstra's algorithm, conceived by Dutch computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra in 1956 and published in 1959, is a graph search algorithm that solves the single-source shortest path problem for a graph with nonnegative edge path costs, producing a shortest path tree. This algorithm is often used in routing and as a subroutine in other graph algorithms.

For a given source vertex (node) in the graph, the algorithm finds the path with lowest cost (i.e. the shortest path) between that vertex and every other vertex. It can also be used for finding costs of shortest paths from a single vertex to a single destination vertex by stopping the algorithm once the shortest path to the destination vertex has been determined. For example, if the vertices of the graph represent cities and edge path costs represent driving distances between pairs of cities connected by a direct road, Dijkstra's algorithm can be used to find the shortest route between one city and all other cities. As a result, the shortest path first is widely used in network routing protocols, most notably IS-IS and OSPF (Open Shortest Path First).

Dijkstra's original algorithm does not use a min-priority queue and runs in O(|V|2). The idea of this algorithm is also given in (Leyzorek et al. 1957). The common implementation based on a min-priority queue implemented by a Fibonacci heap and running in O(|E| + |V| log |V|) is due to (Fredman & Tarjan 1984). This is asymptotically the fastest known single-source shortest-path algorithm for arbitrary directed graphs with unbounded nonnegative weights. (For an overview of earlier shortest path algorithms and later improvements and adaptations, see: Single-source shortest-paths algorithms for directed graphs with nonnegative weights.)

Algorithm

Let the node at which we are starting be called the initial node. Let the distance of node Y be the distance from the initial node to Y. Dijkstra's algorithm will assign some initial distance values and will try to improve them step by step.
  1. Assign to every node a tentative distance value: set it to zero for our initial node and to infinity for all other nodes.
  2. Mark all nodes except the initial node as unvisited. Set the initial node as current. Create a set of the unvisited nodes called the unvisited set consisting of all the nodes except the initial node.
  3. For the current node, consider all of its unvisited neighbors and calculate their tentative distances. For example, if the current node A is marked with a distance of 6, and the edge connecting it with a neighbor B has length 2, then the distance to B (through A) will be 6+2=8. If this distance is less than the previously recorded distance, then overwrite that distance. Even though a neighbor has been examined, it is not marked as visited at this time, and it remains in the unvisited set.
  4. When we are done considering all of the neighbors of the current node, mark the current node as visited and remove it from the unvisited set. A visited node will never be checked again; its distance recorded now is final and minimal.
  5. The next current node will be the node marked with the lowest (tentative) distance in the unvisited set.
  6. If the unvisited set is empty, then stop. The algorithm has finished. Otherwise, set the unvisited node marked with the smallest tentative distance as the next "current node" and go back to step 3.

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