doc/graph_io.dox
author ladanyi
Fri, 03 Jun 2005 12:25:23 +0000
changeset 1444 5fcd69785959
parent 1333 2640cf6547ff
child 1522 321661278137
permissions -rw-r--r--
zooming should really work now
     1 namespace lemon {
     2 /*!
     3 
     4 
     5 \page graph-io-page Graph Input-Output
     6 
     7 The standard graph IO makes possible to store graphs and additional maps
     8 in a flexible and efficient way. 
     9 
    10 \section format The general file format
    11 
    12 The graph file contains at most four section in the next order:
    13 
    14 \li nodeset
    15 \li edgeset
    16 \li nodes
    17 \li edges
    18 
    19 The nodeset section starts with the \c \@nodeset line.
    20 The next line contains the names of the maps separated by whitespaces.
    21 Each following line describes a node in the graph, it contains
    22 in the right order the values of the maps. The map named "id" should contain
    23 unique values because it regarded as ID-map. 
    24 
    25 \code
    26 @nodeset
    27 id  x-coord  y-coord  color
    28 3   1.0      4.0      blue
    29 5   2.3      5.7      red
    30 12  7.8      2.3      green
    31 \endcode
    32 
    33 The edgeset section is very similar to the nodeset section, it has
    34 same coloumn oriented structure. It starts with the line \c \@edgeset
    35 The next line contains the whitespace separated list of names of the map.
    36 Each of the next lines describes one edge. The first two elements in the line
    37 are the ID of the source and target node as they occur in the ID node map. 
    38 
    39 \code
    40 @edgeset
    41              id    weight   label
    42 3   5        a     4.3      a-edge
    43 5   12       c     2.6      c-edge
    44 3   12       g     3.4      g-edge
    45 \endcode
    46 
    47 The next section contains <em>labeled nodes</em> (i.e. nodes having a special
    48 label on them). The section starts with
    49 \c \@nodes. Each of the next lines contains a label for a node in the graph 
    50 and then the ID described in the nodeset.
    51 
    52 \code
    53 @nodes 
    54 source 3
    55 target 12
    56 \endcode
    57 
    58 The last section describes the <em>labeled edges</em>
    59 (i.e. edges having a special label on them). It starts with \c \@edges
    60 and then each line contains the name of the edge and the ID.
    61 
    62 \code
    63 @nodes 
    64 observed c
    65 \endcode
    66 
    67 The file ends with the \c \@end line.
    68 
    69 The file may contain empty lines and comment lines. The comment lines
    70 start with an \c # character.
    71 
    72 \code
    73 @end
    74 \endcode
    75 
    76 \section use Using graph input-output
    77 The graph input and output based on writing and reading commands. The user
    78 adds writing and reading commands for the reader or writer class, then 
    79 calls the \c run() method that executes all the given commands.
    80 
    81 \subsection write Writing a graph
    82 
    83 The \c GraphWriter class provides the graph output. To write a graph
    84 you should first give writing commands for the writer. You can declare
    85 write command as \c NodeMap or \c EdgeMap writing and labeled Node and
    86 Edge writing.
    87 
    88 \code
    89 GraphWriter<ListGraph> writer(std::cout, graph);
    90 \endcode
    91 
    92 The \c writeNodeMap() function declares a \c NodeMap writing command in the
    93 \c GraphWriter. You should give as parameter the name of the map and the map
    94 object. The NodeMap writing command with name "id" should write a 
    95 unique map because it is regarded as ID map.
    96 
    97 \see IdMap, DescriptorMap  
    98 
    99 \code
   100 IdMap<ListGraph, Node> nodeIdMap;
   101 writer.writeNodeMap("id", nodeIdMap);
   102 
   103 writer.writeNodeMap("x-coord", xCoordMap);
   104 writer.writeNodeMap("y-coord", yCoordMap);
   105 writer.writeNodeMap("color", colorMap);
   106 \endcode
   107 
   108 With the \c writeEdgeMap() member function you can give an edge map
   109 writing command similar to the NodeMaps.
   110 
   111 \see IdMap, DescriptorMap  
   112 \code
   113 DescriptorMap<ListGraph, Edge, ListGraph::EdgeMap<int> > edgeDescMap(graph);
   114 writer.writeEdgeMap("descriptor", edgeDescMap);
   115 
   116 writer.writeEdgeMap("weight", weightMap);
   117 writer.writeEdgeMap("label", labelMap);
   118 \endcode
   119 
   120 With \c writeNode() and \c writeEdge() functions you can point out Nodes and
   121 Edges in the graph. By example, you can write out the source and target
   122 of the graph.
   123 
   124 \code
   125 writer.writeNode("source", sourceNode);
   126 writer.writeNode("target", targetNode);
   127 
   128 writer.writeEdge("observed", edge);
   129 \endcode
   130 
   131 After you give all write commands you must call the \c run() member
   132 function, which execute all the writer commands.
   133 
   134 \code
   135 writer.run();
   136 \endcode
   137 
   138 \subsection reading Reading a graph
   139 
   140 The given file format may contain several maps and labeled nodes or edges.
   141 If you read a graph you need not read all the maps and items just those
   142 that you need. The interface of the \c GraphReader is very similar to
   143 the GraphWriter but the reading method does not depend on the order the
   144 given commands.
   145 
   146 The reader object suppose that each not readed value does not contain 
   147 whitespaces, therefore it has some extra possibilities to control how
   148 it should skip the values when the string representation contains spaces.
   149 
   150 \code
   151 GraphReader<ListGraph> reader(std::cin, graph);
   152 \endcode
   153 
   154 The \c readNodeMap() function reads a map from the \c \@nodeset section.
   155 If there is a map that you do not want to read from the file and there is
   156 whitespace in the string represenation of the values then you should
   157 call the \c skipNodeMap() template member function with proper parameters.
   158 
   159 \see QuotedStringReader
   160 \code
   161 reader.readNodeMap("x-coord", xCoordMap);
   162 reader.readNodeMap("y-coord", yCoordMap);
   163 
   164 reader.readNodeMap<QuotedStringReader>("label", labelMap);
   165 reader.skipNodeMap<QuotedStringReader>("description");
   166 
   167 reader.readNodeMap("color", colorMap);
   168 \endcode
   169 
   170 With the \c readEdgeMap() member function you can give an edge map
   171 reading command similar to the NodeMaps. 
   172 
   173 \code
   174 reader.readEdgeMap("weight", weightMap);
   175 reader.readEdgeMap("label", labelMap);
   176 \endcode
   177 
   178 With \c readNode() and \c readEdge() functions you can read labeled Nodes and
   179 Edges.
   180 
   181 \code
   182 reader.readNode("source", sourceNode);
   183 reader.readNode("target", targetNode);
   184 
   185 reader.readEdge("observed", edge);
   186 \endcode
   187 
   188 After you give all read commands you must call the \c run() member
   189 function, which execute all the commands.
   190 
   191 \code
   192 reader.run();
   193 \endcode
   194 
   195 \section types The background of the Reading and Writing
   196 The \c GraphReader should know how can read a Value from the given map.
   197 By the default implementation the input operator reads a value from
   198 the stream and the type of the readed value is the value type of the given map.
   199 When the reader should skip a value in the stream, because you do not
   200 want to store it in map, the reader skips a character sequence without 
   201 whitespace. 
   202 
   203 If you want to change the functionality of the reader, you can use
   204 template parameters to specialize it. When you give a reading
   205 command for a map you can give a Reader type as template parameter.
   206 With this template parameter you can control how the Reader reads
   207 a value from the stream.
   208 
   209 The reader has the next structure: 
   210 \code
   211 struct TypeReader {
   212   typedef TypeName Value;
   213 
   214   void read(std::istream& is, Value& value);
   215 };
   216 \endcode
   217 
   218 By example, the \c "strings" nodemap contains strings and you do not need
   219 the value of the string just the length. Then you can implement own Reader
   220 struct.
   221 
   222 \code
   223 struct LengthReader {
   224   typedef int Value;
   225 
   226   void read(std::istream& is, Value& value) {
   227     std::string tmp;
   228     is >> tmp;
   229     value = tmp.length();
   230   }
   231 };
   232 ...
   233 reader.readNodeMap<LengthReader>("strings", lengthMap);
   234 \endcode  
   235 
   236 The global functionality of the reader class can be changed by giving a
   237 special template parameter for the GraphReader class. By default, the
   238 template parameter is \c DefaultReaderTraits. A reader traits class 
   239 should provide an inner template class Reader for each type, and an 
   240 DefaultReader for skipping a value.
   241 
   242 The specialization of the writing should be very similar to the reading.
   243 
   244 \author Balazs Dezso
   245 */
   246 }