NIST

transitive reduction

(definition)

Definition: The transitive reduction of a directed graph G is the directed graph G' with the smallest number of edges such that for every path between vertices in G, G' has a path between those vertices.

See also reduced digraph, transitive closure.

Note: Informally G' is the minimal graph with the same connectivity as G. After abstract of A. V. Aho, M. R. Garey, and J. D. Ullman. The transitive reduction of a directed graph. SIAM Journal on Computing, 1:131--137, 1972.

Author: PEB

Implementation

on a graph (C++ and Mathematica)
Go to the Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures home page.

If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul E. Black.

Entry modified 21 March 2005.
HTML page formatted Mon Sep 11 09:46:08 2006.

Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "transitive reduction", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed., U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 21 March 2005. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/transitiveReduction.html

to NIST home page