Definitions

Definition (Subgraph)
Let G be a graph with vertex-set V (G ) and edge-set E (G ).
Let H be a graph with vertex-set V (H) and edge-set E (H).
Then we say that H is a subgraph of G if V (H) ⊆ V (G ) and
E (H) ⊆ E (G ).

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Definition (Spanning Subgraph)

A spanning subgraph of G is a subgraph H with V (G ) = V (H),
i.e., G and H have exactly the same vertex-set.

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Definition (Walk)
A walk in a graph G is an alternating sequence of vertices and
edges W = hv0 , e1 , v1 , e2 , · · ·, vn−1 , en , vn i .

Beginning and ending with vertices in which

endpoints(ei ) = {vi−1 , vi }, for i = 1, 2, . . . , n
v0 is the origin and vn is the terminus vertices.

Definition (Trail)
A trail is a walk with no repeated edge (vertices may be repeated).

Definition (Path)
A path is a walk with no repeated vertex (edges cannot be
repeated).

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Definition (closed trail / circuit)
A closed trail / circuit is a trail that begins and ends at the same
vertex.
Definition (cycle)
A closed path / cycle is a path that begins and ends at the same
vertex.
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Definition (length)
The length of a walk (or trail, path, cycle) is the number of edges
in the walk (or trail, path, cycle) sequence.
Note
A path of length k is called a k-path.
A cycle of length k is called a k-cycle.
k- cycle is odd or even according as k is odd or even.
A 3-cycle is often called a triangle.

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Definition (distance)
The distance d (u, v ) from a vertex u to a vertex v in a graph G is
the length of a shortest (u, v )-path if one exists; otherwise
d (u, v ) = ∞.

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Definitions
Definition (connected graph)
A graph is connected if for every pair of vertices u and v , there is a
path from u to v . A graph that is not connected is called
disconnected.
Note
It is easy to see that a disconnected graph consists of two or
more connected graphs. Each of these connected subgraphs is
called a component.
The number of components of G is denoted C (G ).

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