What Is Incidence Matrix in Data Structure?

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Larry Thompson

In data structure, the incidence matrix is a representation of a graph. It is a two-dimensional matrix that describes the relationship between vertices and edges in a graph. Each row of the matrix represents a vertex, and each column represents an edge.

Definition

The incidence matrix is defined as follows:

Syntax:

<ul>
<li> Let V be the set of vertices in the graph
<li> Let E be the set of edges in the graph
<li> Let n be the number of vertices in the graph
<li> Let m be the number of edges in the graph

Pseudocode:

<ul>
<li> Create an empty 2D array with dimensions [n][m]
<li> For each vertex v∈V and edge e∈E, assign 1 to matrix[v][e] if v is incident to e, otherwise assign 0

Example

To better understand how an incidence matrix works, let’s consider a simple example:

G = (V, E)

  • V = {A, B, C}
  • E = {e1, e2}

We can represent this graph using an incidence matrix as follows:

Incidence Matrix:

  •    e1 e2
  • A    1   0
  • B    1   1
  • C    0   1

Properties and Applications

The incidence matrix has several properties and applications:

1. Compact representation:

The incidence matrix provides a compact representation of a graph compared to other representations like adjacency lists or adjacency matrices. It only requires O(n * m) space, where n is the number of vertices and m is the number of edges.

2. Edge-vertex relationship:

The incidence matrix clearly shows the relationship between edges and vertices in a graph.

Each row represents a vertex, and each column represents an edge. The value at matrix[v][e] indicates whether vertex v is incident to edge e.

3. Graph operations:

The incidence matrix enables efficient implementation of various graph operations such as adding or removing vertices or edges, checking if two vertices are adjacent, finding all neighbors of a vertex, etc.

Conclusion

In summary, the incidence matrix is a useful data structure for representing graphs. It provides a compact representation of the edge-vertex relationship in a graph and enables efficient implementation of various graph operations.

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