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Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm

The Depth First Search (DFS) algorithm is a recursive method for exploring all vertices in a graph or tree, utilizing a stack to manage the traversal. It follows a set of rules to visit unvisited adjacent vertices, marking them as visited and pushing them onto the stack, while backtracking when dead ends are encountered. The document also provides a step-by-step example and implementations of the DFS algorithm in various programming languages.

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9 views

Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm

The Depth First Search (DFS) algorithm is a recursive method for exploring all vertices in a graph or tree, utilizing a stack to manage the traversal. It follows a set of rules to visit unvisited adjacent vertices, marking them as visited and pushing them onto the stack, while backtracking when dead ends are encountered. The document also provides a step-by-step example and implementations of the DFS algorithm in various programming languages.

Uploaded by

vimala k
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm


Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm
Depth First Search (DFS) algorithm is a recursive algorithm for searching all the vertices
of a graph or tree data structure. This algorithm traverses a graph in a depthward
motion and uses a stack to remember to get the next vertex to start a search, when a
dead end occurs in any iteration.

As in the example given above, DFS algorithm traverses from S to A to D to G to E to B


first, then to F and lastly to C. It employs the following rules.

Rule 1 − Visit the adjacent unvisited vertex. Mark it as visited. Display it.
Push it in a stack.

Rule 2 − If no adjacent vertex is found, pop up a vertex from the stack. (It
will pop up all the vertices from the stack, which do not have adjacent
vertices.)

Rule 3 − Repeat Rule 1 and Rule 2 until the stack is empty.

Step Traversal Description


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1 Initialize the stack.

Mark S as visited and put it onto


the stack. Explore any unvisited
adjacent node from S. We have
2 three nodes and we can pick any
of them. For this example, we
shall take the node in an
alphabetical order.

Mark A as visited and put it onto


the stack. Explore any unvisited
adjacent node from A. Both S and
3
D are adjacent to A but we are
concerned for unvisited nodes
only.

Visit D and mark it as visited and


put onto the stack. Here, we have
B and C nodes, which are adjacent
4
to D and both are unvisited.
However, we shall again choose in
an alphabetical order.
Page 3 of 6

We choose B, mark it as visited


and put onto the stack. Here B
5 does not have any unvisited
adjacent node. So, we pop B from
the stack.

We check the stack top for return


to the previous node and check if
6 it has any unvisited nodes. Here,
we find D to be on the top of the
stack.

Only unvisited adjacent node is


from D is C now. So we visit C,
7
mark it as visited and put it onto
the stack.

As C does not have any unvisited adjacent node so we keep popping the stack until we
find a node that has an unvisited adjacent node. In this case, there's none and we keep
popping until the stack is empty.

Example

Following are the implementations of Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm in various
programming languages −

C C++ Java Python

Open Compiler

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

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