Dijkstra's algorithm - An Illustrated Explanation

what Dijkstra's Algorithm do?

In a given graph, and starting node, Dijkstra's Algorithm discovers the

shortest path from the starting node to all other nodes.

Assumptions: The cost/length of travelling between nodes is known.

The Explanation: Dijkstra's Algorithm

Figure 1: Dijkstra - Initial Position

Figure 1 displays the graph: nodes are black circles labelled a-f, a path is a
black line connecting two nodes, each path has an associated length beside
it (the numbers). The lengths are not to scale.

Node 'a' is our starting node, we want to find the shortest path to all other
nodes in the graph. To do this, we generate a table. This table has the
distance to all the nodes in the graph, from the perspective of the starting
node 'a'.
 Table 1: Initial Entries for distances
to nodes from Node 'a'
Distance to Node from Node
Node
'a'
B INFINTE
C INFINTE
D INFINTE
E INFINTE
F INFINTE
G INFINTE
H INFINTE
I INFINTE

As can be seen from Table 1, the initial entries for the distances are all set
to infinity (or some notional maximum value). This ensures that any path
found will be shorter than the initial value stored in the table.

The node 'a' is the starting node, as such we examine all the possible paths
away from this node first. The options are as follows:

Table 2: Distance to nodes (from 'a')

accesible from node 'a'
Node Distance to Node from Node 'a'
B 7
C 4
D 5

These values are used to update the graph table, Table 1, which becomes:

Table 3: Entries for distances to nodes

from Node 'a'
Node Distance to Node from Node 'a'
B 7
 C 4
D 5
E INFINTE
F INFINTE
G INFINTE
H INFINTE
I INFINTE

Figure 2: Dijkstra's algorithm

Figure 2 shows the routes marked in red. We know we have three paths
from node 'a'. However, these paths are not yet guaranteed to be the
shortest path. To be sure we have the shortest path, we have to keep going.

The next move in the algorithm is to move to the nearest node from node
'a'. In this case that is node 'c'.
 Figure 3: Dijkstra's Algorithm

At node 'c' we have paths available to nodes 'b' and 'h'. When calculating
the distances we have to calculate the distances from node 'a'. In this case
that means the following:

Table 4: Distance to nodes (from 'a')

accesible from node 'a'
Node Distance to Node from Node 'a'
B 6
H 13

These values are then compared to the values stored in the Table 3. It can
be seen that both of these values are less than the current values stored in
the table, as such table 3 becomes:

Table 5: Entries for distances to nodes

from Node 'a'
Node Distance to Node from Node 'a'
B 6
C 4
D 5
 E INFINTE
F INFINTE
G INFINTE
H 13
I INFINTE

This step has illustrated one of the advantages of dijkstra's algorithm: the
route to node 'b' is not the most direct route, but it is the shortest route;
Dijkstra's Algorithm can find the shortest route, even when that route is
not the most direct route.

Figure 4: Dijkstra's Algorithm

Again, all paths accesible from node 'c' have been checked, and the table of
paths has been updated. Node 'c' is marked as visited.

IMPORTANT:

1. A Visited node is never re-visited.

2. Once a node has been marked visited, the path to that node is known
to be the shortest route from the initial node.

In that case, we should add another column to our table:

 Table 6: Entries for distances to nodes
from Node 'a'
Distance to Node from
Node Visited
Node 'a'
b 6 NO
c 4 YES
d 5 NO
e INFINTE NO
f INFINTE NO
g INFINTE NO
h 13 NO
i INFINTE NO

As these value are being updated, the route that accompanies these
distances also needs to be stored.

Once again, the table of paths is consulted, and the shortest path to a node
that has not been visited is found. This node becomes the next current
node. In this case, that is node 'd'.

Figure 5: Dijkstra's Algorithm

From node 'd', the following paths are available:

Table 7: Distance to nodes (from 'a')

accesible from node 'a'
Node Distance to Node from Node 'a'
f 14

The table of all paths is updated to reflect that, and the node 'd' is marked
as visited, this locks in the shortest path to node 'd' also:

Table 8: Entries for distances to nodes

from Node 'a'
Distance to Node from
Node Visited
Node 'a'
b 6 NO
c 4 YES
d 5 YES
e INFINTE NO
f 14 NO
g INFINTE NO
h 13 NO
i INFINTE NO

It can be seen from table 8 above, that the next nearest node to node 'a' is
node 'b'. All paths from node 'b' are examined next. In this instance, we
have a path to a node that is marked as visited: node 'c', we already know
that the path to node 'c' is as short as it can get (the node being marked as
visited is the marker for this).
 Figure 6: Dijkstra's Algorithm

As figure 6 shows, we check the path the only other node accesible from
node 'b': node 'e'. This updates our paht table as follows:

Table 9: Entries for distances to nodes

from Node 'a'
Distance to Node from
Node Visited
Node 'a'
b 6 YES
c 4 YES
d 5 YES
e 31 NO
f 14 NO
g INFINTE NO
h 13 NO
i INFINTE NO

Table 9 again tells us that the next node for us to visit is node 'h'.
 Figure 7: Dijkstra's Algorithm

We add up the paths, and mark the nodes as visited...

Figure 8: Dijkstra's Algorithm

We keep on doing this....

 Figure 9: Dijkstra's Algorithm

Until all the nodes have been visited!

Every step in this process can be viewed as under: Dijkstra's Algorithm -

Step-by-Step

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