An object-oriented design and implementation of reusable graph objects with C++

Abstract

In its basic form, a graph consists of a set of vertices and a set of edges. Infinitely many variations, however, can be defined from it. One may associate any set of attributes with the set of vertices and edges (resulting directed and undirected graphs, flow networks, finit e state diagrams, vertex weighted graphs, etc.), or associate any set of restrictions with the set of vertices and edges (resulting acyclic graphs, bipartite graphs, planar graphs, interval graphs, etc.). Various graphs have been implemented and embedded in today's software systems. In this paper, we study the issues of reusable design and propose a design and implementation of reusable graph objects using object-oriented concepts so that graph objects can be adapted to new or revised applications.