3 * This file is a part of LEMON, a generic C++ optimization library
5 * Copyright (C) 2003-2007
6 * Egervary Jeno Kombinatorikus Optimalizalasi Kutatocsoport
7 * (Egervary Research Group on Combinatorial Optimization, EGRES).
9 * Permission to use, modify and distribute this software is granted
10 * provided that this copyright notice appears in all copies. For
11 * precise terms see the accompanying LICENSE file.
13 * This software is provided "AS IS" with no warranty of any kind,
14 * express or implied, and with no claim as to its suitability for any
23 \page lemon_file_format LEMON Graph File Format
25 The standard graph IO enables one to store graphs and additional maps
26 (i.e. functions on the nodes or edges) in a flexible and efficient way.
27 Before you read this page you should be familiar with LEMON
28 \ref graphs "graphs" and \ref maps-page "maps".
30 \section format The general file format
32 The file contains sections in the following order:
40 Some of these sections can be omitted, but you will basicly need the nodeset
41 section (unless your graph has no nodes at all) and the edgeset section
42 (unless your graph has no edges at all).
44 The nodeset section describes the nodes of your graph: it identifies the nodes
45 and gives the maps defined on them, if any. It starts with the
50 The next line contains the names of the nodemaps, separated by whitespaces. Each
51 following line describes a node in the graph: it contains the values of the
52 maps in the right order. The map named "label" should contain unique values
53 because it is regarded as a label map. These labels need not be numbers but they
54 must identify the nodes uniquely for later reference. For example:
58 label x-coord y-coord color
64 The edgeset section is very similar to the nodeset section, it has
65 the same coloumn oriented structure. It starts with the line
69 The next line contains the whitespace separated list of names of the edge
70 maps. Each of the next lines describes one edge. The first two elements in
71 the line are the labels of the source and target (or tail and head) nodes of the
72 edge as they occur in the label node map of the nodeset section. You can also
73 have an optional label map on the edges for later reference (which has to be
84 The \e nodes section contains <em>labeled (distinguished) nodes</em>
85 (i.e. nodes having a special
86 label on them). The section starts with
90 Each of the next lines contains a label for a node in the graph
91 and then the label as described in the \e nodeset section.
99 The last section describes the <em>labeled (distinguished) edges</em>
100 (i.e. edges having a special label on them). It starts with \c \@edges
101 and then each line contains the name of the edge and the label.
109 The file may contain empty lines and comment lines. The comment lines
110 start with an \c # character.
112 The attributes section can handle some information about the graph. It
113 contains key-value pairs in each line (a key and the mapped value to key). The
114 key should be a string without whitespaces, the value can be of various types.
118 title "Four colored planar graph"
119 author "Balazs DEZSO"
120 copyright "Lemon Library"
124 Finally, the file should be closed with \c \@end line.
127 \section use Using graph input-output
130 The graph input and output is based on <em> reading and writing
131 commands</em>. The user gives reading and writing commands to the reader or
132 writer class, then he calls the \c run() method that executes all the given
135 \subsection write Writing a graph
137 The \ref lemon::GraphWriter "GraphWriter" template class
138 provides the graph output. To write a graph
139 you should first give writing commands to the writer. You can declare
140 writing command as \c NodeMap or \c EdgeMap writing and labeled Node and
144 GraphWriter<ListGraph> writer(std::cout, graph);
147 The \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeNodeMap() "writeNodeMap()"
148 function declares a \c NodeMap writing command in the
149 \ref lemon::GraphWriter "GraphWriter".
150 You should give a name to the map and the map
151 object as parameters. The NodeMap writing command with name "label" should write a
152 unique map because it will be regarded as a label map.
154 \see IdMap, DescriptorMap
157 IdMap<ListGraph, Node> nodeLabelMap;
158 writer.writeNodeMap("label", nodeLabelMap);
160 writer.writeNodeMap("x-coord", xCoordMap);
161 writer.writeNodeMap("y-coord", yCoordMap);
162 writer.writeNodeMap("color", colorMap);
165 With the \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeEdgeMap() "writeEdgeMap()"
166 member function you can give an edge map
167 writing command similar to the NodeMaps.
169 \see IdMap, DescriptorMap
172 DescriptorMap<ListGraph, Edge, ListGraph::EdgeMap<int> > edgeDescMap(graph);
173 writer.writeEdgeMap("descriptor", edgeDescMap);
175 writer.writeEdgeMap("weight", weightMap);
176 writer.writeEdgeMap("note", noteMap);
179 With \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeNode() "writeNode()"
180 and \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeEdge() "writeEdge()"
181 functions you can designate Nodes and
182 Edges in the graph. For example, you can write out the source and target node
183 of a maximum flow instance.
186 writer.writeNode("source", sourceNode);
187 writer.writeNode("target", targetNode);
189 writer.writeEdge("observed", edge);
192 With \ref lemon::GraphWriter::writeAttribute() "writeAttribute()"
193 function you can write an attribute to the file.
196 writer.writeAttribute("author", "Balazs DEZSO");
197 writer.writeAttribute("version", 12);
200 After you give all write commands you must call the
201 \ref lemon::GraphWriter::run() "run()" member
202 function, which executes all the writing commands.
208 \subsection reading Reading a graph
210 The file to be read may contain several maps and labeled nodes or edges.
211 If you read a graph you need not read all the maps and items just those
212 that you need. The interface of the \ref lemon::GraphReader "GraphReader"
214 the \ref lemon::GraphWriter "GraphWriter"
215 but the reading method does not depend on the order of the
218 The reader object assumes that each not read value does not contain
219 whitespaces, therefore it has some extra possibilities to control how
220 it should skip the values when the string representation contains spaces.
223 GraphReader<ListGraph> reader(std::cin, graph);
226 The \ref lemon::GraphReader::readNodeMap() "readNodeMap()"
227 function reads a map from the \c nodeset section.
228 If there is a map that you do not want to read from the file and there are
229 whitespaces in the string represenation of the values then you should
230 call the \ref lemon::GraphReader::skipNodeMap() "skipNodeMap()"
231 template member function with proper parameters.
233 \see QuotedStringReader
236 reader.readNodeMap("x-coord", xCoordMap);
237 reader.readNodeMap("y-coord", yCoordMap);
239 reader.readNodeMap<QuotedStringReader>("label", labelMap);
240 reader.skipNodeMap<QuotedStringReader>("description");
242 reader.readNodeMap("color", colorMap);
245 With the \ref lemon::GraphReader::readEdgeMap() "readEdgeMap()"
246 member function you can give an edge map
247 reading command similar to the NodeMaps.
250 reader.readEdgeMap("weight", weightMap);
251 reader.readEdgeMap("label", labelMap);
254 With \ref lemon::GraphReader::readNode() "readNode()"
255 and \ref lemon::GraphReader::readEdge() "readEdge()"
256 functions you can read labeled Nodes and
260 reader.readNode("source", sourceNode);
261 reader.readNode("target", targetNode);
263 reader.readEdge("observed", edge);
266 With \ref lemon::GraphReader::readAttribute() "readAttribute()"
267 function you can read an attribute from the file.
271 writer.readAttribute("author", author);
273 writer.writeAttribute("version", version);
276 After you give all read commands you must call the
277 \ref lemon::GraphReader::run() "run()" member
278 function, which executes all the commands.
284 If you want to lear more, read the \ref read_write_bg "background technics".