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I am looking for a reference text on applied graph theory and graph algorithms. Is there a standard text used in most computer science programs? If not, what are the most respected texts in the field? I have Cormen et al.

Raphael
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JEHR
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5 Answers5

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I would take a look at the free book by Bondy and Murty: Graph Theory with Applications. This book is less-algorithmic and more graph-theoretical than other resources recommended here. There is also a newer version of the book, which is not available for free on the net, but is extremely well-written and with updated notation. In comparison to other free books on graph theory (as for example Diestel), Bondy/Murty uses a less formal approach to prove and explain the theory.

The reason I have used it, is because it is the primary text-book in the course on Graph Theory at The Technical University of Denmark, lectured by Carsten Thomassen, in which I have been assistant teacher for 2 years.

Aky
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utdiscant
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For digraphs in particular, there's Band-Jensen & Gutin's "Digraphs: Theory, Algorithms and Applications". It covers quite a bit of material.

The first edition is free to download now that the second edition is out (There's a link to the pdf on their page). Of course if you've got access to a Springerlink account, you can get the second edition instead!

Apart from being free, while I'm not sure of its popularity (especially considering it's "relatively" young), it's a weighty tome, with extensive coverage from basics to quite advanced topics and from both practical and theoretical perspectives.

The other advantage is that it's one of the few (perhaps only?) full coverage texts specifically on digraphs, rather than a being a general graph theory book with material on digraphs.

Luke Mathieson
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There is always the free Algorithmic Graph Theory which covers graph algorithms, data structures, traversals, and several other topics. If it doesn't have what you're looking for, at least you're not out anything.

alto
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Have a look at (the non free) Algorithmic Graph Theory by Alan Gibbons. It's an oldie but quite widely used in CS, it has a computational approach but does also cover the theory. At around 250 pages it's not too intimidating and is well respected.

ncke
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There is the book "Managing and Mining Graph Data" from Charu C. Aggarwal.

It contains (among others):

  • Graph Mining: Laws and Generators
  • Graph Data Management and Mining
  • Graph Indexing
  • Graph Reachability Queries
  • Graph Matching
  • Graph Classification

As the title suggests it concentrates on graph data and algorithms for this type of data. I don't know if this is what you are searching for, but I can really recommend this book:

Managing and Mining Graph Data

EDIT: Since one comment asked for "evidence" for the relevance of my answer, I would like to point out the following:

  • Charu Aggarwal is one of the guiding lights in the field of Data Mining (Top 20 Authors).
  • The book is very well written and easy to understand, even with little previous knowledge.
  • There is a review of this book from the ACM stating a recommodation of reading it.
  • And finally: I like it :D