Minimum Spanning Tree Of Graph

collapse all in page

Syntax

T = minspantree(G)
T = minspantree(G,Name,Value)
[T,pred] = minspantree(___)

Description

example

T = minspantree(G) returns the minimum spanning tree, T, for graph G.

example

T = minspantree(G,Name,Value) uses additional options specified by one or more

Name-Value pair arguments. For example, minspantree(G,'Method','sparse') uses
Kruskal’s algorithm for calculating the minimum spanning tree.

example

[T,pred] = minspantree(___) also returns a vector of predecessor nodes, pred, using

any of the input arguments in previous syntaxes.

Examples

collapse all

Minimum Spanning Tree of Cube Graph

Create and plot a cube graph with weighted edges.

s = [1 1 1 2 5 3 6 4 7 8 8 8];
t = [2 3 4 5 3 6 4 7 2 6 7 5];
weights = [100 10 10 10 10 20 10 30 50 10 70 10];
G = graph(s,t,weights);
p = plot(G,'EdgeLabel',G.Edges.Weight);
Calculate and plot the minimum spanning tree of the graph on top of the graph. T contains the
same nodes as G, but a subset of the edges.

[T,pred] = minspantree(G);
highlight(p,T)
Minimum Spanning Forest from Specified Root Node

Create and plot a graph that has multiple components.

s = {'a' 'a' 'a' 'b' 'b' 'c' 'e' 'e' 'f' 'f' 'f' 'f' 'g' 'g'};
t = {'b' 'c' 'd' 'c' 'd' 'd' 'f' 'g' 'g' 'h' 'i' 'j' 'i' 'j'};
G = graph(s,t);
p = plot(G,'Layout','layered');
Find the minimum spanning forest for the graph, starting at node i. Highlight the resulting forest
in the plot. The graph node names are carried over into the minimum spanning tree graph.

[T,pred] =
minspantree(G,'Type','forest','Root',findnode(G,'i'));
highlight(p,T)
Use the vector of predecessor nodes, pred, to create a directed version of the minimum
spanning forest. All of the edges in this tree are directed away from the root nodes in each
component (nodes i and a).

rootedTree =
digraph(pred(pred~=0),find(pred~=0),[],G.Nodes.Name);
plot(rootedTree)
Input Arguments

collapse all

G — Input graph
graph object

Input graph, specified as a graph object. Use graph to create an undirected graph object.

Example: G = graph(1,2)

Name-Value Pair Arguments

Specify optional comma-separated pairs of Name,Value arguments. Name is the argument

name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside quotes. You can specify
several name and value pair arguments in any order as
Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN.

Example: [T,pred] = minspantree(G,'Method','sparse')

'Method' — Minimum spanning tree algorithm
'dense' (default) | 'sparse'

Minimum spanning tree algorithm, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of

'Method' and one of the options in the table.

Option Description
'dense' Prim’s algorithm. This algorithm starts at the root node and adds edges to the
(default) tree while traversing the graph.
Kruskal’s algorithm. This algorithm sorts all of the edges by weight, and then
'sparse'
adds them to the tree if they do not create a cycle.

'Root' — Root node

1 (default) | node index | node name

Root node, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Root' and a node index or
node name. The default root node is 1.

 If 'Method' is 'dense' (default), then the root node is the starting node.
 If 'Method' is 'sparse', then the root node is used only to compute pred, the
vector of predecessor nodes.

You can specify the root node in any of these formats:

Value Example
Scalar node index 1
Character vector node name 'A'
String scalar node name "A"

'Type' — Type of minimum spanning tree

'tree' (default) | 'forest'

Type of minimum spanning tree, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Type'
and one of the options in the table.

Option Description
'tree' Only a single tree is returned. The tree contains the root node.
A forest of minimum spanning trees is returned. In other words, specify
'forest' 'forest' to calculate the minimum spanning tree of all connected components
in the graph.

Output Arguments
collapse all

T — Minimum spanning tree

graph object

Minimum spanning tree, returned as a graph object.

pred — Predecessor nodes

vector

Predecessor nodes, returned as a vector of node indices. pred(I) is the node index of the
predecessor of node I. By convention, pred(rootNode) = 0. If Type is 'tree', then
pred(I) = NaN for all nodes I that are not in the same component as the root node.

pred specifies a directed version of the minimum spanning tree, with all edges directed away
from the root node.

More About

collapse all

Minimum Spanning Tree

For connected graphs, a spanning tree is a subgraph that connects every node in the graph, but
contains no cycles. There can be many spanning trees for any given graph. By assigning a weight
to each edge, the different spanning trees are assigned a number for the total weight of their
edges. The minimum spanning tree is then the spanning tree whose edges have the least total
weight.

For graphs with equal edge weights, all spanning trees are minimum spanning trees, since
traversing n nodes requires n-1 edges.