doc/lemon_file_format.dox
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     1 namespace lemon {
       
     2 /*!
       
     3 
       
     4 
       
     5 \page lemon_file_format LEMON Graph File Format
       
     6 
       
     7 The standard graph IO enables one to store graphs and additional maps
       
     8 (i.e. functions on the nodes or edges) in a flexible and efficient way. 
       
     9 Before you read this page you should be familiar with LEMON 
       
    10 \ref graphs "graphs" and \ref maps-page "maps".
       
    11 
       
    12 \section format The general file format
       
    13 
       
    14 The file contains sections in the following order:
       
    15 
       
    16 \li nodeset
       
    17 \li edgeset
       
    18 \li nodes
       
    19 \li edges
       
    20 \li attributes
       
    21 
       
    22 Some of these sections can be omitted, but you will basicly need the nodeset
       
    23 section (unless your graph has no nodes at all) and the edgeset section
       
    24 (unless your graph has no edges at all). 
       
    25 
       
    26 The nodeset section describes the nodes of your graph: it identifies the nodes
       
    27 and gives the maps defined on them, if any. It starts with the
       
    28 following line:
       
    29 
       
    30 <tt>\@nodeset</tt>
       
    31 
       
    32 The next line contains the names of the nodemaps, separated by whitespaces.  Each
       
    33 following line describes a node in the graph: it contains the values of the
       
    34 maps in the right order. The map named "label" should contain unique values
       
    35 because it is regarded as a label map. These labels need not be numbers but they
       
    36 must identify the nodes uniquely for later reference. For example:
       
    37 
       
    38 \code
       
    39 @nodeset
       
    40 label  x-coord  y-coord  color
       
    41 3   1.0      4.0      blue
       
    42 5   2.3      5.7      red
       
    43 12  7.8      2.3      green
       
    44 \endcode
       
    45 
       
    46 The edgeset section is very similar to the nodeset section, it has
       
    47 the same coloumn oriented structure. It starts with the line 
       
    48 
       
    49 <tt>\@edgeset</tt>
       
    50 
       
    51 The next line contains the whitespace separated list of names of the edge
       
    52 maps.  Each of the next lines describes one edge. The first two elements in
       
    53 the line are the labels of the source and target (or tail and head) nodes of the
       
    54 edge as they occur in the label node map of the nodeset section. You can also
       
    55 have an optional label map on the edges for later reference (which has to be
       
    56 unique in this case).
       
    57 
       
    58 \code
       
    59 @edgeset
       
    60              label      weight   note
       
    61 3   5        a          4.3      a-edge
       
    62 5   12       c          2.6      c-edge
       
    63 3   12       g          3.4      g-edge
       
    64 \endcode
       
    65 
       
    66 The \e nodes section contains <em>labeled (distinguished) nodes</em> 
       
    67 (i.e. nodes having a special
       
    68 label on them). The section starts with
       
    69 
       
    70 <tt> \@nodes </tt>
       
    71 
       
    72 Each of the next lines contains a label for a node in the graph 
       
    73 and then the label as described in the \e nodeset section.
       
    74 
       
    75 \code
       
    76 @nodes 
       
    77 source 3
       
    78 target 12
       
    79 \endcode
       
    80 
       
    81 The last section describes the <em>labeled (distinguished) edges</em>
       
    82 (i.e. edges having a special label on them). It starts with \c \@edges
       
    83 and then each line contains the name of the edge and the label.
       
    84 
       
    85 \code
       
    86 @edges 
       
    87 observed c
       
    88 \endcode
       
    89 
       
    90 
       
    91 The file may contain empty lines and comment lines. The comment lines
       
    92 start with an \c # character.
       
    93 
       
    94 The attributes section can handle some information about the graph. It
       
    95 contains key-value pairs in each line (a key and the mapped value to key). The
       
    96 key should be a string without whitespaces, the value can be of various types.
       
    97 
       
    98 \code
       
    99 @attributes
       
   100 title "Four colored planar graph"
       
   101 author "Balazs DEZSO"
       
   102 copyright "Lemon Library"
       
   103 version 12
       
   104 \endcode
       
   105 
       
   106 Finally, the file should be closed with \c \@end line.
       
   107 
       
   108 
       
   109 \section use Using graph input-output
       
   110 
       
   111 
       
   112 The graph input and output is based on <em> reading and writing
       
   113 commands</em>. The user gives reading and writing commands to the reader or
       
   114 writer class, then he calls the \c run() method that executes all the given
       
   115 commands.
       
   116 
       
   117 \subsection write Writing a graph
       
   118 
       
   119 The \ref lemon::GraphWriter "GraphWriter" template class
       
   120 provides the graph output. To write a graph
       
   121 you should first give writing commands to the writer. You can declare
       
   122 writing command as \c NodeMap or \c EdgeMap writing and labeled Node and
       
   123 Edge writing.
       
   124 
       
   125 \code
       
   126 GraphWriter<ListGraph> writer(std::cout, graph);
       
   127 \endcode
       
   128 
       
   129 The \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeNodeMap() "writeNodeMap()"
       
   130 function declares a \c NodeMap writing command in the
       
   131 \ref lemon::GraphWriter "GraphWriter".
       
   132 You should give a name to the map and the map
       
   133 object as parameters. The NodeMap writing command with name "label" should write a 
       
   134 unique map because it will be regarded as a label map.
       
   135 
       
   136 \see IdMap, DescriptorMap  
       
   137 
       
   138 \code
       
   139 IdMap<ListGraph, Node> nodeLabelMap;
       
   140 writer.writeNodeMap("label", nodeLabelMap);
       
   141 
       
   142 writer.writeNodeMap("x-coord", xCoordMap);
       
   143 writer.writeNodeMap("y-coord", yCoordMap);
       
   144 writer.writeNodeMap("color", colorMap);
       
   145 \endcode
       
   146 
       
   147 With the \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeEdgeMap() "writeEdgeMap()"
       
   148 member function you can give an edge map
       
   149 writing command similar to the NodeMaps.
       
   150 
       
   151 \see IdMap, DescriptorMap  
       
   152 
       
   153 \code
       
   154 DescriptorMap<ListGraph, Edge, ListGraph::EdgeMap<int> > edgeDescMap(graph);
       
   155 writer.writeEdgeMap("descriptor", edgeDescMap);
       
   156 
       
   157 writer.writeEdgeMap("weight", weightMap);
       
   158 writer.writeEdgeMap("note", noteMap);
       
   159 \endcode
       
   160 
       
   161 With \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeNode() "writeNode()"
       
   162 and \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeEdge() "writeEdge()"
       
   163 functions you can designate Nodes and
       
   164 Edges in the graph. For example, you can write out the source and target node
       
   165 of a maximum flow instance.
       
   166 
       
   167 \code
       
   168 writer.writeNode("source", sourceNode);
       
   169 writer.writeNode("target", targetNode);
       
   170 
       
   171 writer.writeEdge("observed", edge);
       
   172 \endcode
       
   173 
       
   174 With \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeAttribute() "writeAttribute()"
       
   175 function you can write an attribute to the file.
       
   176 
       
   177 \code
       
   178 writer.writeAttribute("author", "Balazs DEZSO");
       
   179 writer.writeAttribute("version", 12);
       
   180 \endcode
       
   181 
       
   182 After you give all write commands you must call the
       
   183 \ref lemon::GraphWriter::run() "run()" member
       
   184 function, which executes all the writing commands.
       
   185 
       
   186 \code
       
   187 writer.run();
       
   188 \endcode
       
   189 
       
   190 \subsection reading Reading a graph
       
   191 
       
   192 The file to be read may contain several maps and labeled nodes or edges.
       
   193 If you read a graph you need not read all the maps and items just those
       
   194 that you need. The interface of the \ref lemon::GraphReader "GraphReader"
       
   195 is very similar to
       
   196 the \ref lemon::GraphWriter "GraphWriter"
       
   197 but the reading method does not depend on the order of the
       
   198 given commands.
       
   199 
       
   200 The reader object assumes that each not read value does not contain 
       
   201 whitespaces, therefore it has some extra possibilities to control how
       
   202 it should skip the values when the string representation contains spaces.
       
   203 
       
   204 \code
       
   205 GraphReader<ListGraph> reader(std::cin, graph);
       
   206 \endcode
       
   207 
       
   208 The \ref lemon::GraphReader::readNodeMap() "readNodeMap()"
       
   209 function reads a map from the \c nodeset section.
       
   210 If there is a map that you do not want to read from the file and there are
       
   211 whitespaces in the string represenation of the values then you should
       
   212 call the \ref lemon::GraphReader::skipNodeMap() "skipNodeMap()"
       
   213 template member function with proper parameters.
       
   214 
       
   215 \see QuotedStringReader
       
   216 
       
   217 \code
       
   218 reader.readNodeMap("x-coord", xCoordMap);
       
   219 reader.readNodeMap("y-coord", yCoordMap);
       
   220 
       
   221 reader.readNodeMap<QuotedStringReader>("label", labelMap);
       
   222 reader.skipNodeMap<QuotedStringReader>("description");
       
   223 
       
   224 reader.readNodeMap("color", colorMap);
       
   225 \endcode
       
   226 
       
   227 With the \ref lemon::GraphReader::readEdgeMap() "readEdgeMap()"
       
   228 member function you can give an edge map
       
   229 reading command similar to the NodeMaps. 
       
   230 
       
   231 \code
       
   232 reader.readEdgeMap("weight", weightMap);
       
   233 reader.readEdgeMap("label", labelMap);
       
   234 \endcode
       
   235 
       
   236 With \ref lemon::GraphReader::readNode() "readNode()"
       
   237 and \ref lemon::GraphReader::readEdge() "readEdge()"
       
   238 functions you can read labeled Nodes and
       
   239 Edges.
       
   240 
       
   241 \code
       
   242 reader.readNode("source", sourceNode);
       
   243 reader.readNode("target", targetNode);
       
   244 
       
   245 reader.readEdge("observed", edge);
       
   246 \endcode
       
   247 
       
   248 With \ref lemon::GraphReader::readAttribute() "readAttribute()"
       
   249 function you can read an attribute from the file.
       
   250 
       
   251 \code
       
   252 std::string author;
       
   253 writer.readAttribute("author", author);
       
   254 int version;
       
   255 writer.writeAttribute("version", version);
       
   256 \endcode
       
   257 
       
   258 After you give all read commands you must call the
       
   259 \ref lemon::GraphReader::run() "run()" member
       
   260 function, which executes all the commands.
       
   261 
       
   262 \code
       
   263 reader.run();
       
   264 \endcode
       
   265 
       
   266 If you want to lear more, read the \ref read_write_bg "background technics".
       
   267 
       
   268 \author Balazs Dezso
       
   269 */
       
   270 }