How do I implement graphs and graph algorithms in a functional programming language?

Posted by brad on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by brad
Published on 2010-06-08T16:03:49Z Indexed on 2010/06/08 16:12 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 272

Filed under:

functional-programming

|

computer-science

|

graphs

Basically, I know how to create graph data structures and use Dijkstra's algorithm in programming languages where side effects are allowed. Typically, graph algorithms use a structure to mark certain nodes as 'visited', but this has side effects, which I'm trying to avoid.

I can think of one way to implement this in a functional language, but it basically requires passing around large amounts of state to different functions, and I'm wondering if there is a more space-efficient solution.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about functional-programming

Introducing functional programming constructs in non-functional programming languages

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
This question has been going through my mind quite a lot lately and since I haven't found a convincing answer to it I would like to know if other users of this site have thought about it as well. In the recent years, even though OOP is still the most popular programming paradigm, functional programming… >>> More
Functional programming constructs in non-functional programming languages

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
This question has been going through my mind quite a lot lately and since I haven't found a convincing answer to it I would like to know if other users of this site have thought about it as well. In the recent years, even though OOP is still the most popular programming paradigm, functional programming… >>> More
Does functional programming mandate new naming conventions?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I recently started studying functional programming using Haskell and came upon this article on the official Haskell wiki: How to read Haskell. The article claims that short variable names such as x, xs, and f are fitting for Haskell code, because of conciseness and abstraction. In essence, it claims… >>> More
pitfalls/disadvantages of functional programming

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
When would you NOT want to use functional programming? What is it not so good at? I am more looking for disadvantages of the paradigm as a whole, not things like "not widely used", or "no good debugger available". Those answers may be correct as of now, but they deal with FP being a new concept (an… >>> More
Should functional programming be taught before imperative programming?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
It seems to me that functional programming is a great thing. It eliminates state and makes it much easier to automatically make code run in parallel. Many programmers who were first taught imperative programming styles find it very difficult to learn functional programming, because it is so different… >>> More

Related posts about computer-science

How do I completely self study computer science?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Being a completely self taught programmer I would like it if I could better myself by self-learning computer science course taught to a typical CS grad. Finding different resources on internet has been easy, there is of course MIT open course ware, and there are Coursera courses from Stanford and… >>> More
what, why, when, should I learn computer science?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm 16 years old and really an enthusiast on web programming. I know (X)HTML, css, javascript and php. And i heard about computer science. Below are my question: What is computer science? Should a web programmer learn computer science? If the answer of question 2 is yes, then what programming language(s)… >>> More
what, why, when, should I learn computer science?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm 16 years old and really an enthusiast on web programming. I know (X)HTML, css, javascript and php. And i heard about computer science. Below are my question: What is computer science is? Should a web programmer learn computer science? If the answer of question 2 is yes, then what programming… >>> More
What topic in computer science is this?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I am trying to figure out what 'topic' this is called, so I can learn more about it. Basically, I'm talking about designing my applications's architecture. I'm not talking about algorithms. More like -- this class should have these methods and these instance variables, and communicate with… >>> More
Computer Science Resume [closed]

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am looking for a good computer science resume. I just graduated, and I would like to see some samples from real programmers. The ones online don't seem that great. Sorry if this is posted in the wrong section. >>> More