Warshall’s Algorithm

Dr. Ying Lu
[email protected]

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 Warshall’s algorithm: transitive closure
• Computes the transitive closure of a relation
• (Alternatively: all paths in a directed graph)

• Example of transitive closure:

3 3
1 1

4 4 0 0 1 0
2 0 0 1 0 2
1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1

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 Warshall’s algorithm
• Main idea: a path exists between two vertices i, j, iff
•there is an edge from i to j; or

•there is a path from i to j going through intermediate

vertices which are drawn from set {vertex 1}; or

•there is a path from i to j going through intermediate

vertices which are drawn from set {vertex 1, 2}; or

•…

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 Warshall’s algorithm
• Main idea: a path exists between two vertices i, j, iff
•there is a path from i to j going through intermediate
vertices which are drawn from set {vertex 1, 2, … k-1}; or

•there is a path from i to j going through intermediate

vertices which are drawn from set {vertex 1, 2, … k}; or

•...

•there is a path from i to j going through any of the other

vertices

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 Warshall’s algorithm

 Idea: dynamic programming

• Let V={1, …, n} and for k≤n, Vk={1, …, k}
• For any pair of vertices i, jV, identify all paths from i to j
whose intermediate vertices are all drawn from Vk: Pijk={p1, p2,
…}, if Pijk then Rk[i, j]=1 V
k

P1
i j
p2
• For any pair of vertices i, j: Rn[i, j], that is Rn
• Starting with R0=A, the adjacency matrix, how to get R1  …
 Rk-1  Rk  …  Rn
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Warshall’s algorithm

 Idea: dynamic programming

• pPijk: p is a path from i to j with all intermediate vertices
in Vk
• If k is not on p, then p is also a path from i to j with all
intermediate vertices in Vk-1: pPijk-1

k Vk
Vk-1
p
i j

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Warshall’s algorithm

 Idea: dynamic programming

• pPijk: p is a path from i to j with all intermediate vertices
in Vk
• If k is on p, then we break down p into p1 and p2
– What are P1 and P2?

p
k Vk
p1
Vk-1 p2

i j

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Warshall’s algorithm

 Idea: dynamic programming

• pPijk: p is a path from i to j with all intermediate vertices
in Vk
• If k is on p, then we break down p into p1 and p2 where
– p1 is a path from i to k with all intermediate vertices in Vk-1
– p2 is a path from k to j with all intermediate vertices in Vk-1
p
k Vk
p1
Vk-1 p2

i j

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 Warshall’s algorithm

• In the kth stage determine if a path exists between two vertices

i, j using just vertices among 1, …, k

{
R(k)[i,j] =
R(k-1)[i,j]
or
(path using just 1, …, k-1)

(R(k-1)[i,k] and R(k-1)[k,j]) (path from i to k

and from k to j
k using just 1, …, k-1)
i
kth stage

j
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Warshall’s algorithm
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3 1
1

2 4
2 4 3 R2
R1 1 0 0 1 0
R0
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1
1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
2 4 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0

3 R4
3 R3 1
1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0
2 1 1 1 1
2 4 1 1 1 1

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Warshall’s algorithm

R0 = A R1 R2
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1

R3 R4
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

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In-class exercises
Apply Warshall’s algorithm to find the transitive closure of
the digraph defined by the following adjacency matrix

0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0

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