[Tex/LaTex] The package to visualize graphs

graphicsgraphs

What could be the packages to use for visualization of graphs?
I tried Graphviz, but it's very hard to direct how the graphs should be shown.

How can I make the graphs represented as is shown in the examples (excerpt from Graph Theory and Complex Networks: An Introduction).

enter imagGraph Theory and Complex Networks: An Introductione description here
enter image description here
enter image description here

Best Answer

You can use TikZ. Here's a very minimal example,

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={circle,inner sep=2pt,fill=black}]
  \node (A) at (0,0) {};
  \node (B) at (1,1) {};
  \node (C) at (0,1) {};
  \node (D) at (1,0) {};

  \draw (A) -- (B)
        (A) -- (C)
        (A) -- (D)
        (B) -- (D);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

You can use pstricks

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pstricks,pst-node}
\begin{document}
\begin{pspicture}[showgrid=false](1,1)
\pnode(0,0){A}
\pnode(1,1){B}    
\pnode(0,1){C}    
\pnode(1,0){D}    

\rput(A){\psdot}
\rput(B){\psdot}
\rput(C){\psdot}
\rput(D){\psdot}

\psline(A)(B)
\psline(A)(C)
\psline(A)(D)
\psline(B)(D)
\end{pspicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

While this following example could be done a bit more efficiently, it does show that you can make very nicely connected graphs:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \def\mycircleofnodes{C0}
  \foreach \x in {0,30,...,330}
    {
      \node[circle,fill=black,inner sep=2pt] (C\x) at (\x:3) {} ;
      \ifnum\x>0\relax\xdef\mycircleofnodes{\mycircleofnodes,C\x}\fi
    }
  \foreach \x in {0,30,...,330}
    {
      \foreach \y in \mycircleofnodes
        {
          \draw (\y) -- (C\x);
        }
    }
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

If you don't want to connect every node to each other, then you can do something along the following lines:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \def\mycircleofnodes{C0}
  \foreach \x in {0,1,...,11}
    {
      \node[circle,fill=black,inner sep=2pt] (C\x) at (\x*30:3) {} ;
      \ifnum\x>0\relax\xdef\mycircleofnodes{\mycircleofnodes,C\x}\fi
    }

  \foreach \x/\y in {0/1,0/2,0/3,0/4,0/5,0/6,0/7,%
                     2/4,%
                     5/6,5/7,5/10,%
                     8/9,8/11}
    {
      \draw (C\x) -- (C\y);
    }

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Here's (only) the beginning of how to set up something like your second example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\pagestyle{empty}

\def\rowA{0}
\def\rowB{0,1,...,9}
\def\rowC{0,1,...,17}
\def\rowD{0,1,...,13}
\def\rowE{0,1,...,5}
\def\rowF{0}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[x=0.5cm,
                    y=1.75cm,
                    every node/.style={circle,
                                       inner sep=2pt,
                                       fill=black}
                   ]

  \foreach \x in \rowA { \node (A\x) at (\x-0.5,2)  {}; }
  \foreach \x in \rowB { \node (B\x) at (\x-5,1)    {}; }
  \foreach \x in \rowC { \node (C\x) at (\x-9,0)    {}; }
  \foreach \x in \rowD { \node (D\x) at (\x-7,-1)   {}; }
  \foreach \x in \rowE { \node (E\x) at (\x-3,-2)   {}; }
  \foreach \x in \rowF { \node (F\x) at (\x-0.5,-3) {}; }

  \foreach \x    in {4,8,9}                    { \draw (A0)  -- (B\x); }
  \foreach \x/\y in {0/2,1/7,1/8,1/17}         { \draw (B\x) -- (C\y); }

  \foreach \x/\y in {0/0,0/7,0/8,0/10,1/4,1/8} { \draw (E\x) -- (D\y); }
  \foreach \x/\y in {0/0,0/1,0/2,0/3,0/4,0/5}  { \draw (F\x) -- (E\y); }

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Be advised! Both pstricks and tikz have their own learning curves. They both have ample documentation. The documentation for pstricks is spread over multiple pdf files, which at times can lead to frustration when you don't know where to look for the documentation. tikz has an immense and very comprehensive manual (though knowing which libraries are necessary can be a bit frustrating at times).

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