doc/graph_io.dox
author hegyi
Fri, 01 Apr 2005 09:44:29 +0000
changeset 1289 142633fc5014
parent 1114 eb57527fd183
child 1333 2640cf6547ff
permissions -rw-r--r--
Graph displayer is now displaying nodes. Edges remain still undisplayed yet.
     1 namespace lemon {
     2 /*!
     3 
     4 
     5 
     6 \page graph-io-page Graph Input-Output
     7 
     8 The standard graph IO makes possible to store graphs and additional maps
     9 in a flexible and efficient way. 
    10 
    11 \section format The general file format
    12 
    13 The graph file contains at most four section in the next order:
    14 
    15 \li nodeset
    16 \li edgeset
    17 \li nodes
    18 \li edges
    19 
    20 The nodeset section starts with the \c \@nodeset line.
    21 The next line contains the names of the maps separated by whitespaces.
    22 Each following line describes a node in the graph, it contains
    23 in the right order the values of the maps. The first map should contain
    24 unique values because it regarded as Id-map. 
    25 
    26 \code
    27 @nodeset
    28 id  x-coord  y-coord  color
    29 3   1.0      4.0      blue
    30 5   2.3      5.7      red
    31 12  7.8      2.3      green
    32 \endcode
    33 
    34 The edgeset section is very similar to the nodeset section, it has
    35 same coloumn oriented structure. It starts with the line \c \@edgeset
    36 The next line contains the whitespace separated list of names of the map.
    37 Each of the next lines describes one edge. The first two elements in the line
    38 are the ID of the source and target node as they occur in the first node map. 
    39 
    40 \code
    41 @edgeset
    42              id    weight   label
    43 3   5        a     4.3      a-edge
    44 5   12       c     2.6      c-edge
    45 3   12       g     3.4      g-edge
    46 \endcode
    47 
    48 The next section contains <em>labeles nodes</em> (i.e. nodes having a special
    49 label on them). The section starts with
    50 \c \@nodes. Each of the next lines contains a label for a node in the graph 
    51 and then the ID described in the first column in the nodeset.
    52 
    53 \code
    54 @nodes 
    55 source 3
    56 target 12
    57 \endcode
    58 
    59 The last section describes the <em>labeles edges</em>
    60 (i.e. edges having a special
    61 label on them). It starts with \c \@edges
    62 and then each line contains the name of the edge and the ID.
    63 
    64 \code
    65 @nodes 
    66 observed c
    67 \endcode
    68 
    69 The file ends with the \c \@end line.
    70 
    71 The file may contain empty lines and comment lines. The comment lines
    72 start with an \c # character.
    73 
    74 \code
    75 @end
    76 \endcode
    77 
    78 \section use Using graph input-output
    79 The graph input and output based on writing and reading commands. The user
    80 adds writing and reading commands for the reader or writer class, then 
    81 calls the \c run() method that executes all the given commands.
    82 
    83 \subsection write Writing a graph
    84 
    85 The \c GraphWriter class provides the graph output. To write a graph
    86 you should first give writing commands for the writer. You can declare
    87 write command as \c NodeMap or \c EdgeMap writing and labeled Node and
    88 Edge writing.
    89 
    90 \code
    91 GraphWriter<ListGraph> writer(graph);
    92 \endcode
    93 
    94 The \c addNodeMap() function declares a \c NodeMap writing command in the
    95 \c GraphWriter. You should give as parameter the name of the map and the map
    96 object. The first NodeMap writing command should write a unique map because
    97 it is regarded as ID map.
    98 
    99 \see IdMap, DescriptorMap  
   100 
   101 \code
   102 IdMap<ListGraph, Node> nodeIdMap;
   103 writer.addNodeMap("id", nodeIdMap);
   104 
   105 writer.addNodeMap("x-coord", xCoordMap);
   106 writer.addNodeMap("y-coord", yCoordMap);
   107 writer.addNodeMap("color", colorMap);
   108 \endcode
   109 
   110 With the \c addEdgeMap() member function you can give an edge map
   111 writing command similar to the NodeMaps. The first map writing command should
   112 write unique map.
   113 
   114 \see IdMap, DescriptorMap  
   115 \code
   116 DescriptorMap<ListGraph, Edge, ListGraph::EdgeMap<int> > edgeDescMap(graph);
   117 writer.addEdgeMap("descriptor", edgeDescMap);
   118 
   119 writer.addEdgeMap("weight", weightMap);
   120 writer.addEdgeMap("label", labelMap);
   121 \endcode
   122 
   123 With \c addNode() and \c addEdge() functions you can point out Nodes and
   124 Edges in the graph. By example, you can write out the source and target
   125 of the graph.
   126 
   127 \code
   128 writer.addNode("source", sourceNode);
   129 writer.addNode("target", targetNode);
   130 
   131 writer.addEdge("observed", edge);
   132 \endcode
   133 
   134 After you give all write commands you must call the \c run() member
   135 function, which execute all the write commands.
   136 
   137 \code
   138 writer.run();
   139 \endcode
   140 
   141 \subsection reading Reading a graph
   142 
   143 The given file format may contain several maps and labeled nodes or edges.
   144 If you read a graph you need not read all the maps and items just those
   145 that you need. The interface of the \c GraphReader is very similar to
   146 the GraphWriter but the reading method does not depend on the order the
   147 given commands.
   148 
   149 The reader object suppose that each not readed value does not contain 
   150 whitespaces, therefore it has some extra possibilities to control how
   151 it should skip the values when the string representation contains spaces.
   152 
   153 \code
   154 GraphReader<ListGraph> reader(graph);
   155 \endcode
   156 
   157 The \c addNodeMap() function reads a map from the \c \@nodeset section.
   158 If there is a map that you do not want to read from the file and there is
   159 whitespace in the string represenation of the values then you should
   160 call the \c skipNodeMap() template member function with proper parameters.
   161 
   162 \see QuotedStringReader
   163 \code
   164 reader.addNodeMap("x-coord", xCoordMap);
   165 reader.addNodeMap("y-coord", yCoordMap);
   166 
   167 reader.addNodeMap<QuotedStringReader>("label", labelMap);
   168 reader.skipNodeMap<QuotedStringReader>("description");
   169 
   170 reader.addNodeMap("color", colorMap);
   171 \endcode
   172 
   173 With the \c addEdgeMap() member function you can give an edge map
   174 reading command similar to the NodeMaps. 
   175 
   176 \code
   177 reader.addEdgeMap("weight", weightMap);
   178 reader.addEdgeMap("label", labelMap);
   179 \endcode
   180 
   181 With \c addNode() and \c addEdge() functions you can read labeled Nodes and
   182 Edges.
   183 
   184 \code
   185 reader.addNode("source", sourceNode);
   186 reader.addNode("target", targetNode);
   187 
   188 reader.addEdge("observed", edge);
   189 \endcode
   190 
   191 After you give all read commands you must call the \c run() member
   192 function, which execute all the commands.
   193 
   194 \code
   195 reader.run();
   196 \endcode
   197 
   198 \section types The background of the Reading and Writing
   199 The \c GraphReader should know how can read a Value from the given map.
   200 By the default implementation the input operator reads a value from
   201 the stream and the type of the readed value is the value type of the given map.
   202 When the reader should skip a value in the stream, because you do not
   203 want to store it in map, the reader skips a character sequence without 
   204 whitespace. 
   205 
   206 If you want to change the functionality of the reader, you can use
   207 template parameters to specialize it. When you give a reading
   208 command for a map you can give a Reader type as template parameter.
   209 With this template parameter you can control how does read the Reader
   210 a value from the stream.
   211 
   212 The reader has the next structure: 
   213 \code
   214 struct TypeReader {
   215   typedef TypeName Value;
   216 
   217   void read(std::istream& is, Value& value);
   218 };
   219 \endcode
   220 
   221 By example, the \c "strings" nodemap contains strings and you do not need
   222 the value of the string just the length. Then you can implement own Reader
   223 struct.
   224 
   225 \code
   226 struct LengthReader {
   227   typedef int Value;
   228 
   229   void read(std::istream& is, Value& value) {
   230     std::string tmp;
   231     is >> tmp;
   232     value = tmp.length();
   233   }
   234 };
   235 ...
   236 reader.addNodeMap<LengthReader>("strings", lengthMap);
   237 \endcode  
   238 
   239 The global functionality of the reader class can be changed by giving a
   240 special template parameter for the GraphReader class. By default, the
   241 template parameter is \c DefaultReaderTraits. A reader traits class 
   242 should provide an inner template class Reader for each type, and an 
   243 DefaultReader for skipping a value.
   244 
   245 The specialization of the writing should be very similar to the reading.
   246 
   247 
   248 */
   249 }